The Mediating Role of Forgiveness and Marital Self-Regulation in the Relationship Between Experiential Avoidance and Marital Burnout in Married Women
Keywords:
marital burnout, experiential avoidance, forgiveness, marital Self-RegulationAbstract
Objective: This study aimed to investigate the mediating roles of forgiveness and marital self-regulation in the relationship between experiential avoidance and marital burnout among married women.
Methods and Materials: The research employed an applied, descriptive-correlational design. The statistical population consisted of married women in Tehran with 5–15 years of marital life who had not remarried and voluntarily agreed to participate. Using convenience sampling, 300 participants were recruited from counseling centers. The instruments included the Marital Burnout Questionnaire (Pines, 1996), the Experiential Avoidance Questionnaire (Gámez et al., 2011), the Marital Self-Regulation Scale (Wilson et al., 2009), and the Family Forgiveness Scale (Pollard et al., 1998). After eliminating invalid responses, data were analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficients and structural equation modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation in AMOS 26.
Findings: Experiential avoidance was found to be a positive and significant predictor of marital burnout. However, forgiveness and marital self-regulation significantly and negatively mediated this relationship. The direct path between experiential avoidance and marital burnout was nonsignificant (β = .123, p = .069), while the indirect effects through forgiveness (β = .137, p = .001) and marital self-regulation (β = .188, p = .001) were both positive and significant. The total effect of experiential avoidance on marital burnout (β = .447, p = .001) indicated a substantial contribution, with the overall model explaining 52% of the variance in marital burnout. Model fit indices demonstrated acceptable fit (χ²/df = 2.74, GFI = .921, CFI = .945, RMSEA = .076).
Conclusion: The findings highlight that forgiveness and marital self-regulation act as protective mechanisms that mitigate the negative impact of experiential avoidance on marital burnout.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Hourieh Masoumirad (Author); Pantea Jahangir (Corresponding Author); Simindokht Rezakhani (Author)
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