Relational communication, emotional intelligence, and marital satisfaction

This research was designed to investigate the role of relational communication and emotional intelligence on quality of marital satisfaction. This is hypothesized that effective communication and higher emotional intelligence is likely to predict the greater marital satisfaction. The sample for the current research comprised of 100 married couples taken from diverse family setups, i.e. nuclear vs. Joint. The age range of the participants was from 20 years to 55 years of age. Translated, adapted and validated Emotional versions of Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998), Marital Satisfaction Inventory Revised (Snyder, 1997) and Relational Communication Scale (Burgoon & Hale, 1987) were employed for data collection. Pearson product moment correlation was employed to find relationship between relational communication, emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction. The results indicated that there is significant relationship between relational communication, emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction. Regression analyses revealed that emotional intelligence, husband’s education, monthly income and family system emerged as strong predictors of marital satisfaction. The findings carry strong implications for the family therapists, marital counselors and researchers in the domain of family studies.