The Contribution of Differentiation of the Self, Couple Caregiving, and Intimacy to Marital Satisfaction and Perceptions of Infidelity

The current research has focused on couple relationships and examines the contribution of the self-differentiation as a personality variable to couple caregiving and intimacy, and the contribution of these to marital satisfaction and perception of infidelity. Self-differentiation, a cornerstone of Bowen's theory, is a multidimensional personality variable that has been found to be fundamental in forming relationships and constitutes the theoretical basis for this research. Intimacy and couple caregiving have been found to be essential to relationships throughout life, especially to marital relationship in adulthood. In addition, the study model examined mutual contributions of intimacy, couple caregiving and marital satisfaction of one partner on the other. Studies have found that experiences of domestic abuse, especially sexual abuse, are linked to marital life and therefore this variable will serve as a control variable.

Method: In the study participated 101 heterosexual couples ranging in age from 23 to 49, who were married or had cohabitated for at least 3 years. The participants answered the following six questionnaires: Brief–DSI, assessing Differentiation of the self; CQ, assessing couple caregiving; PAIR, assessing intimacy; RAS, assessing relationship satisfaction; ATI assessing perception of infidelity; and CTQ, assessing childhood experiences of abuse.

Findings: The first research hypothesis of positive associations between differentiation and intimacy, as well as between differentiation and couple caregiving, was confirmed. The second research hypothesis of negative relationships between intimacy and the permissive perception of infidelity and between couple caregiving and permissive infidelity was confirmed. The third research hypothesis that assumed a negative correlation between permissive conception of infidelity and marital satisfaction was confirmed. The fourth research hypothesis that assumed mutual contributions between the couple in variables of marital support, intimacy and satisfaction with the marriage of one to the satisfaction with the marriage of the other spouse was confirmed. The fifth research hypothesis, that assumed that there would be mutual contributions between the couple in variables of couple caregiving, intimacy and satisfaction with the marriage of one to the conception of infidelity of the spouse, was not confirmed and no association was found between marital support, the degree of intimacy and satisfaction of one spouse and the perception of infidelity among the other spouse. The sixth research hypothesis, which postulated that couple caregiving and intimacy would mediate between differentiation and marital satisfaction, was confirmed. The seventh research hypothesis, which postulated that couple caregiving and intimacy would mediate between differentiation and permissive conception of infidelity, was partially confirmed, it was found that couple support mediates the relationship between differentiation and perception of infidelity, however, in the regression model it was evident that intimacy does not present a separate relationship mediated between differentiation and permissive perception of infidelity and therefore this part of the hypothesis has not been confirmed.

The study contribution: The study highlighted the mediating role of intimacy and couple caregiving affecting marital satisfaction. In addition, the study expands the understanding of the relationship between self-differentiation and couple caregiving and the perceptions of infidelity who, to the best of our knowledge, has not yet been tested. The findings of the study may suggest to couple therapists to deepen their examination of the couple's differentiation and its implications for the couple's relationship, thereby expanding the understanding of the processes that take place between the couple, like the mutual caring, for increasing the couple relationship satisfaction.