The Causal Model of Attitudes Toward Marital Infidelity Based on Family Cohesion in Iranian Women: The Mediating Role of the Meaning in Life

Abstract

The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between attitudes toward marital infidelity (ATMI) and family cohesion (FC) through the mediating role of the meaning in life (MIL) in Iranian married women. This was a correlational study of path analysis type. The statistical population included all married women living in Kermanshah, Iran in 2021, among whom 310 were selected using convenience sampling method. Participants were asked to fill out Watley's ATMI, Steger et al.'s MIL and Fischer et al.'s Family Organized Cohesion scales. Data were analyzed using path analysis in AMOS-26 and SPSS-26 software. The results indicated that there is a significant negative relationship between FC and ATMI. Moreover, the result of the path analysis revealed that hypothesized model of the study had a good fit in the participants of the current study. That is, there was a significant relationship between FC and ATMI through the mediating role of MIL.

Keywords

marital infidelity family cohesion meaning in life iranian women

Introduction

Family is a place for people to satisfy various physical as well as emotional needs and having knowledge of these needs along with knowing how to satisfy them seem to be an undeniable necessity (Ruhlmann et al., 2018). More than 92% of men and women in the world get married before the age of 40 in order to form a family, and although the marriage contract is based on keeping the parties loyal to each other, marital infidelity has nowadays become a relatively common and ever-increasing phenomenon (Amani et al., 2019; Donald et al., 2016).

Marital infidelity is defined as a violation of the commitment to a two-person relationship that results from the formation of some degree of emotional and sexual intimacy outside marriage (Barış et al., 2020). Just as the emotional and sexual fidelity plays an important role in strengthening relationships and seems as an important principle in the marital relationship, so does marital infidelity potentially help to dissolve the marital relationship, such that it may cause the most damage to the marital relationship, and can even put an end to the relationship (Ignat, 2018). If marital infidelity is defined as having an emotional or sexual relationship outside marriage, 20 to 70% of married people commit infidelity (Birnbaum et al., 2019), and infidelity appears to be the only common cause of divorce in 160 countries (Fincham & May, 2017). Although there are not found any official statistics on the rate of marital infidelity in Iran, this country is no exception to the above-mentioned statistic regarding the prevalence of the marital infidelity. Infidelity has been found to be associated with some negative marital consequences like marital dissolution (Hall & Fincham, 2006; Yuan & Weiser, 2019) major depression (Whisman, 2016) depression and anxiety (Cano & O’Leary, 2000) and even women's suicide (Stephens, 1985). One of the indicators that may predict the prevalence of infidelity is the people's attitude toward infidelity (Peloso Paul, 2009).

Attitudes toward marital infidelity (ATMI) refers to a relatively stable set of beliefs, feelings, and behavioral tendencies toward having sexual or emotional relationship, or a combination of both with someone outside marriage. In other words, people who have a positive ATMI find marital infidelity desirable and are more likely to commit it (Whatley, 2008). Jeanfreau et al. (2014) introduced lack of quality time, inability to resolve conflict, and a lack of attention as the predictors of infidelity in women. Other studies have as well reported personality traits and marital satisfaction (Whisman, 2016), attachment styles and marital quality (Ferdosi, 2019), forgiveness and marital satisfaction (Ghazanfari Shabankare et al., 2021) as the predictors of ATMI. It seems that another basic and important variable may be family cohesion (FC). FC, which is defined by Olson et al. (1983) as the emotional bond between family members seems to be an important dimension of trying to understand each other among family members (Hosseinkhanzadeh et al., 2013). A cohesive family is characterized by a supportive family atmosphere and mutual understanding and understanding of members towards each other, whose members tend to understand the concerns of other members and help them to meet their needs (Nazir et al., 2012). Kordbache and Arefi (2018) figured out that mutual constructive pattern, as a component of communication patterns, is negatively correlated with ATMI. Momeni et al. (2015) also revealed that family cohesion is associated positively with marital commitment.

Although the aforementioned studies have somehow examined the relationship between FC and ATMI, no study, to our knowledge, has investigated the role of a mediator variable which may serve a mediating role between FC and ATMI. Therefore, the main purpose of the study is to introduce a variable which serves a mediating role in the relationship between FC and ATMI. In her family resilience model, Walsh (2006) introduced nine keys to family resilience in the form of three factors, namely (1) family belief system, (2) organizational patterns and (3) communication process as the main foundations of the family resilience, each of which has three components. One of the most important subcomponents of the family belief system is making meaning of adversity, in which Walsh states that the members of a cohesive family tend to think of crises and issues of life as the challenges that are comprehensible, manageable and meaningful. Therefore, they are able to gain meaning of the challenges of their daily lives. Based on this, it seems that one of the variables closely related to family cohesion is the meaning in life (MIL). This claim is supported by other studies as well (e.g., Soltani Benavandi et al., 2020)

MIL refers to a sense of existential integrity that, in turn, has been drawn from responding to life nature, realizing the purpose of life, and achieving valuable goals, leading to a sense of accomplishment and usefulness (Ho et al., 2010). The existence of MIL increases social interests, purposeful behavior, commitment to life and social relationships (Schultz, 1977). Khalilzadeh and Soleimani (2019) indicated that there is a negative significant relationship between MIL and ATMI. Besides, they found that MIL is able to predict ATMI in couples.

According to the above-mentioned studies, in which the relationships between FC, MIL and ATMI have been studied in pairs, it seems necessary to conduct a study, based on Walsh's family resilience model, in order to examine the relationship between these three variables in a single study. Doing so, we can brigade a serious gap in the research literature of the field of inquiry. Therefore, the present study aimed to examine the causal model of ATMI based on FC through the mediating role of MIL in married women. The hypotheses of this study were (1) FC is correlated with ATMI and (2) FC is correlated with ATMI through the mediating role of MIL. The hypothetical model for relationship between FC and ATMI through the mediating role of MIL is presented in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

The hypothetical model of the relationship between FC and ATMI through the mediating role of MIL.

Method

Study Design and Participants

This was a correlational study of path analysis type. The statistical population included all married women living in Kermanshah, Iran in 2021, among whom 310 were selected using convenience sampling. Regarding the sample size, it is worth noting that Stevens (Hooman, 2012, as cited in Momeni et al., 2021) stated that considering 15 items for each predictor variable in the multiple regression analysis by the conventional method, of the minimum squared standard is a good rule of thumb. Based on this, it can be stated that because path analysis in some respects is completely related to multivariate regression, 15 cases for each variable measured in path analysis is not irrational Loehlin (Hooman, 2012, as cited in Momeni et al., 2022) states that for models with two or four factors, the researcher must plan to collect at least 100 or more, for example, 200. Therefore, the sample size was sufficient to perform a path analysis. The inclusion criteria included (1) being in a legal and permanent marriage which has lasted for at least two years, (2) age range of 18 to 55 years, (3) having a minimum literacy of secondary school, and (4) living in Kermanshah. It needs to be said that we did not ask the participants of this study to report weather they have experienced any infidelity in their marital relationship. We just assessed their attitudes about marital infidelity. The mean age of participants was 40.2 (SD = 35.9). Out of all participants, 89 had a diploma degree or lower (28.7%), 151(48.7%) had an associate's or bachelor's degree and 70 (22.5%) had a master’s or PhD degree. Moreover, 194 (62.6%) of the participants were housewives and 116 (37.4%) were employed. Among all participants, 55 (17.7%) had no child, 110 (35.5%) had one, and 145 (46.8%) had two or more children.

Measures

Attitude Towards Marital Infidelity Scale. The ATMI Scale was designed by Whatley (2008) to measure people's feelings and thoughts about issues related to marital infidelity. This scale consists of 12 items, each of which includes a sentence regarding negative and positive feelings about infidelity, scored on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree”). The minimum and maximum possible scores are 12 and 84, respectively, with greater scores indicating greater acceptance of infidelity, and inverse. Using the item-total correlation test, Whatley examined the validity of the scale. The results indicated a positive significant correlation of 0.75 (P < 0.01), which indicated the construct validity of the scale. Yoosefi et al. (2016) reported Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.85 for this scale in Iranians. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for this scale in the current study was 0.78.

The Meaning in Life Scale. MIL Scale, developed by Steger et al. (2006), consists of ten questions, each of which is graded on a 7-point Likert scale (ranging from “absolutely not correct” to “completely correct”). The minimum and maximum possible scores are 10 and 70, respectively, with scores lower than 24 indicating a sense of meaning and value in life, and scores lower than 24 indicating a sense of worthlessness and meaninglessness in life. Steger et al. reported an internal consistency of 0.86 for the subscale of meaning of life and 0.87 for the subscale of meaning search in life. They also reported an internal consistency of 0.70 to 0.84 for the total score of this scale. The result of Test-Retest method with a time interval of one month to assess the reliability of the scale on 50 participants indicated a correlation coefficient of 0.75 (Steger et al., 2006). Khalilzadeh & Soleimani (2019) reported the correlation of MIL scale with Schneider's hopefulness scale as 0.57 in Iran. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for this scale in the current study was 0.73.

Organized Family Cohesion Scale . Fisher et al. (1992) developed and standardized this scale to assess the degree of FC among family members. This scale consists of 13 questions, each of which is scored on a 6-point Likert scale (ranging from “always” to “never”). The minimum and maximum possible scores are 13 and 78, respectively, with higher scores indicating the higher FC, and inverse. The Persian version of this scale, standardized in Iran by Arabnejad et al. (2018), indicated a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.87. They also reported a reliability of 0.79 through Test-Retest method with a time interval of two weeks. The Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient for this scale in the current study was 0.87.

Procedure

Having obtained the necessary permits to conduct the research from the Vice Chancellor for Research of Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, the preliminary stages of the study was conducted. As such, the questionnaires required for the study were designed in the form of online questionnaires in Digit system (a website designed by Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences for producing and indexing online questionnaires). Due to the coincidence of this study with the severe peak of the pandemic of COVID-19 in Iran, the in-person completion of questionnaires was avoided and the link of the questionnaire was sent through social networks (e.g., WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram, etc.) to married women who met the inclusion criteria of the study, using convenience sampling method. In order to increase the accuracy of the sampling, the link of the questionnaire was sent to social channels that were not accessible by a large number of people. At the beginning of the questionnaire, explanations were provided regarding the lack of identity information, and confidentiality of the participants’ information, and their informed consent to participate in the research was obtained by a question. One of the advantages of conducting this research online was that the questionnaires were designed in such a way that could be sent only if all the questions were answered. Therefore, there was no missing data in the present study. Finally, by reviewing 315 questionnaires completed by the participants, after excluding 5 distorted questionnaires due to the presence of outliers, the information obtained from 310 participants was analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and path analysis in Amos-26 and SPSS-26 software.

Findings

In order to investigate the assumptions of conducting a path analysis, the relationship between the variables and the normal distribution of them was checked, respectively, by Pearson's correlation coefficient test, as well as skewness and kurtosis test, the results of which are represented in Table 1.

Table 1.

Pearson's Correlation Matrix, Skewness and Kurtosis of the Variables.

Variables	1	2	3	Skewness	Kurtosis
1. ATMI	1			1.56	2.7
2. FC	−0.24**	1		−0.58	1.01
3. MIL	0.26**	−0.37**	1	−0.72	2

* P < 0.05, ** P < 0.01

As can be seen in Table 1, there is a significant correlation among the variables of the study (P < 0.01). Moreover, due to the fact that the skewness and kurtosis of the variables were within the acceptable range, the assumption of the normal distribution of variables was confirmed. Therefore, the path analysis was performed.

First, to determine the overall fit of the model, fit indices, represented in Table 2, were considered. For the X²/df fit index, values smaller than 3 are appropriate, and the closer it is to zero, the better the model will fit. For GFI and IFI, CFI index, a value close to 0.90 and above is considered as an acceptable goodness of fit, which indicates that the model is good. In relation to the RMSEA index, values close to 0.05 or less indicate a good fit of the model and a value of 0.08 or less indicates a reasonable error of approximation. A value higher than 0.10 indicates the need to reject the model (Hooman, 2012). The fit indices presented in Table 2 indicate the good fit of the model (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

The causal model of the relationship between FC and ATMI through the mediating role of MIL.

Table 2.

Model fit Indices for the Model Developed in Participants.

Model fit indices	X²	df	X²/df	GFI	IFI	CFI	RMSEA
Obtained value	178.45	83	2.15	0.93	0.95	0.95	0.061

Table 3 shows that the direct paths of FC to MIL (β = 0.42, P < 0.001), FC to ATMI (β = −0.15, P < 0.05), and MIL to ATMI (β = −0.29, P < 0.001) were significant. The significance of indirect relationships of variables was tested through bootstrap method, the result of which can be seen in Table 4.

Table 3.

Direct Path Coefficient of the Variables.

Path	Non-Standard estimation	Standard Estimation	Standard error	Critical Ratio	Significance Level
FC → MIL	1.4	0.42	0.3	4.64	0.001
FC → ATMI	−0.06	−0.15	0.03	−2.01	0.04
MIL → ATMI	−0.04	−0.29	0.01	−3.48	0.001

Table 4.

Significance Test of Indirect Effect by Bootstrap Method.

Indirect path	Standard Estimate	Upper limit	Lower limit	Significance level
FC → MIL → ATMI	−0.12	−0.05	−0.24	0.003

As Table 4 shows, the indirect path of FC to ATMI was significant through MIL (β = −0.12; P = 0.003) which confirmed the mediating role of MIL in the relationship between FC and ATMI.

Discussion

The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between FC and ATMI through the mediating role of MIL in married women. The results of path analysis showed that the hypothetical model had a good fit in the participants of study, and all the paths presented in the model were significant. The direct relationship between FC and ATMI (β = −0.15, P < 0.05), and their indirect relationship through the mediating role of MIL were significant (β = −0.12; P = 0.003). Thus, the first and second hypotheses of the study were confirmed. As mentioned before, there is not found any study that considered the interrelationship between the three mentioned variables. However, the findings of the current study were in line with that of previous study in which the relationship between the mentioned variables was examined in pairs (Khalilzadeh & Soleimani, 2019; Kordbache & Arefi, 2018; Momeni et al., 2015; Soltani Benavandi et al., 2020).

In the model of MIL (King et al., 2006; Steger et al., 2006) three components have been introduced for the concept of MIL. According to this classification, people who have a higher MIL (1) have significance that is beyond the trivial and momentary (significance), (2) pursue a specific purpose (purpose) and (3) have a sense of cohesion that transcends the chaos in their environment (cohesion). The sense of cohesion propels people to make sense of life issues. In this way, people with high sense of cohesion find life events comprehensible, manageable and meaningful, and make sense of each of the crises in their lives, which in turn, makes them stronger in dealing with everyday challenges. Reker and Wong (2012) divided the above three components into three aspects of cognitive, motivational, and emotional in a new classification in which the cognitive aspect is about making sense of new experiences, the motivational aspect is about pursuing and achieving valuable goals, and the emotional aspect is about feeling of satisfaction and happiness that comes from achieving goals. Martela and Steger (2016) referred to the cognitive aspect as the most important one in this classification, which affects the other two aspects. The cognitive aspect is, in fact, the sense of cohesion, based on which the sense-making process is formed. The importance of cohesion lies in the fact that the MIL usually depends on the sense which is made of outside world and translating it into a comprehensible and coherent subject. This cognitive aspect of the MIL is thought to be crucial because it gives meaning to one's experiences in life and, in fact, acts as a gateway to MIL. Put in other words, life is meaningful when a people are able to create comprehensible patterns for themselves in order to build a comprehensible universality of their lives.

Just as important is the sense of cohesion in an individual, so too is it in a family. Insofar as Antonovsky (1998) has stated that the concept of the sense of cohesion seems to be one of the significant elements in distinguishing between a salutogenic and pathogenic orientations in a family. Antonovsky believes that human beings are living in a very stressful circumstance, and in these circumstances, what determines how long a family can survive is the degree of the sense of cohesion in that family. The members of a cohesive family think of life as a comprehensible, manageable, and meaningful process. In other words, they rely on their ability to clarify the nature of problems and perceive problems as disciplined, predictable, and explicable. In these families, the demands of the members are considered manageable, and relational resources are mobilized to meet these demands. Stresses are considered as the challenges that members are motivated to manage. Most importantly, in a cohesive family, the family structure is such that it seeks to be meaningful, and that sense of meaning includes existential feelings and social cohesion and purposefulness in life that contrasts with feelings of alienation and confusion.

Heintzelman & King (2014) express one of the distinguishing aspects of cohesion from the other two aspects of the sense of meaning in life. They believe that people have an adaptive trait that motivates them to find sustainable patterns and relationships in their environment, and when people are able to achieve such cohesion, they are reinforced and rewarded by this adaptive trait. They believe that the existence of a cognition that the world has meaning is accompanied by a feeling called sense of meaning, and the existence of this feeling is a sign that there are stable patterns in the environment. People like to experience these feelings, which in turn, make them look for experiences in line with their sense of cohesion, rather than the experiences in conflict with that, mainly because contrasting patterns cause them to experience feelings of instability. Therefore, there is a reciprocal causality between the sense of cohesion and MIL. In a way that encountering cohesive patterns in the environment increases the sense of meaning, which in turn leading to the increase of the sense of cohesion.

According to the above explanations, it can be mentioned that in families with a high sense of cohesion, the members are more looking for experiences that strengthen the sense of family cohesion, which in turn is correlated the sense of meaning in the family. Thus, it is obvious that infidelity, as an experience that is not in line with family cohesion and the sense of meaning, is considered in such families as experiences that break and violate the sense of cohesion and is in conflict with the sense of meaning. Therefore, according to the model of MIL and also the model of resilience in the family, it seems likely that in a family with a high sense of cohesion, members seek to strengthen family cohesion in order to experience a richer MIL and this approach in life appears to be in contrasts with a positive ATMI. Therefore, it seems that these people will have a negative ATMI. The findings of the present study also confirmed this claim and showed that women with a cohesive family have a higher sense of meaning in life and have a more negative ATMI.

The Limitations of the Study

One of the limitations of this study is the method of collecting information through self-assessment questionnaires. Although these questionnaires provide useful information, they can sometimes reduce the validity of the results themselves. Therefore, the tools used in these studies can create biases in the results and should be treated with caution. The participants were selected using convenience sampling that may not be representative of the population. Meanwhile, although path analysis is used in this study, still the nature of the obtained relationships is of the relational type and not causal, and due to the statistical method used and the cross-sectional nature of this study, causal perceptions are not suitable for this type of study. In addition, this study has conducted in Iranians, and due to the deep cultural differences in Eastern and Western societies, extreme caution should be exercised in extending these findings to other societies.

Suggestions for Further Studies

Due to the limitations mentioned in the present study, it is suggested that future studies use highly precisionist tools and control disturbing variables to examine the relationship expressed in this study. These studies can use adult interviews to assess FC, MIL and ATMI in participants, and use longitudinal designs to provide a causal relationship between these psychological structures. Besides, re-conducting this type of study in different cultural contexts helps to form more accurate and universal findings in this field.

Footnotes

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they had no conflicts of interest.

Ethics Approval

The protocol of the study was approved by The Research Ethics Board of the Deputy of Research in the KUMS (IR.KUMS.REC.1400.422).

Authors’ Contributions

All authors met the criteria for authorship contribution based on recommendations of international committee of medical journal editors.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Parisa Janjani

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