The Relationship between Appreciation, Sense of Humor and Social Support with Marital Satisfaction in Nurses

Background & objectives: Marital relationship is one of the significant dimensions of life. Having marital satisfaction plays an important role in professional status of nurses. Appreciation, sense of humor and social support are factors that can effect on marital relationship. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the relationships between appreciation, sense of humor and social support with nurse’s marital satisfaction. Methods: This was a descriptive- correlational study. The statistical population was all nurses in Sari-affiliated hospitals in 2017. By multistep random sampling method, 263 nurses were selected. The study instruments were appreciation in relationships Scale, sense of humor questionnaire, perceived social support scale and marital satisfaction questionnaire. Data analysis was performed in SPSS V.21 using coefficient Pearson correlation and multivariate regression analysis with Enter model. Results: The findings showed that there were positive correlations between appreciation (r=0.27), sense of humor (r=0.19) and perceived social support (r=0.26) with nurses’ marital satisfaction and these correlations were statistically significant (p<0.01). In a predictor model, appreciation, sense of humor and social support could predict 19.9 percent of nurses’ marital satisfaction (R2=0.199). Conclusion: The appreciation, sense of humor, and social support variables had effective roles in predicting nurses’ marital satisfaction. Hence, it is proposed that counselors, therapists and healthcare planners provide for nurses’ the necessary trainings in the area of marital satisfaction predictors.