Document Type : Original Article
Researcher
student of allameh tabatabai university
Ministerial Ethics Committee
Marriage, as one of the most fundamental human relationships, plays a vital role in psychological well-being, personal growth, and social dynamism. However, the quality and stability of marital life are influenced by various factors such as environmental pressures and individual differences. Marital adjustment, as a key indicator of family health, reflects the degree of harmony, satisfaction, and compromise between partners in meeting mutual needs and expectations. Recent studies highlight the importance of ego strength and mentalization as significant intrapersonal predictors of relationship quality. Ego strength refers to an individual’s capacity to balance internal conflicts between the id, superego, and external reality, contributing to emotional stability and relational resilience. Individuals with strong ego strength tend to show greater marital satisfaction and stability. Similarly, mentalization, defined as the ability to understand one’s own and others’ mental states, enhances empathy, reduces emotional misunderstandings, and promotes marital satisfaction. Moreover, based on family systems theory, the quality of the relationship with the spouse’s family acts as an influential subsystem that may mediate the relationship between intrapersonal resources and marital adjustment; positive relationships serve as sources of support, whereas negative ones become sources of tension. Despite extensive research on individual predictors of marital adjustment, an integrated model examining the direct and indirect effects of ego strength and mentalization remains underexplored. Therefore, the present study aims to predict marital adjustment based on ego strength and mentalization, considering the mediating role of the quality of the relationship with the spouse’s family