Modeling the Structural Relations among Communication Patterns, Love Schemas and Marital Commitment with Mediation of Love Styles

This study examined the relations among communication patterns, love schemas and marital commitment with mediation of love styles. This research had a descriptive-correlational design. The statistical population of the study comprised all married female teachers in public schools of Tabriz in 2017-18 school year. Multi-stage cluster sampling method was utilized and 237 teachers were selected. The instruments included Communication Patterns Questionnaire (Christensen & Sullaway, 1984), Love Schema Scale (Singelis, Choo & Hatfield, 1995), Marital Commitment Inventory (Adams & Jones, 1997), and Love Styles Scale (Sternberg, 1986). The proposed model was evaluated using SPSS23 and SmartPLS3. Structural equation modeling was performed to examine the relations among the variables of the research.  The results revealed that the communication patterns directly and indirectly predicted marital commitment in a negative way and directly predicted love styles in a positive way. Moreover, the love schemas directly and indirectly predicted marital commitment in a positive way and directly and positively predicted love styles. Furthermore, love styles directly predicted marital commitment in a positive way. The findings of the study can be used by family consultants to identify individuals prone to extramarital affairs in order to help them achieve higher levels of mental well-being.