a model of marital adjustment based on self-differentiation and emotional–sexual needs fulfillment, mediated by alexithymia, among students at university of hormozgan, iran

Introduction: marital adjustment is an important indicator of family health. however, the simultaneous roles of self-differentiation and emotional–sexual needs fulfillment in marital adjustment, mediated by alexithymia—particularly among married university students—have rarely been examined within an integrated model. therefore, the present study aimed to test a model examining the mediating role of alexithymia in the relationship between self-differentiation and emotional-sexual needs fulfillment with marital adjustment among married students at the university of hormozgan. methods: this research employed a descriptive-correlational design using a partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) approach. the statistical population of this study consisted of all married students at the university of hormozgan. a sample of 316 individuals was selected through simple random sampling. data were collected using the following instruments: the self-differentiation inventory-revised (dsi-r), the emotional-sexual needs questionnaire, the toronto alexithymia scale (tas-20), and the locke-wallace marital adjustment test. results: the sem analysis indicated that the final model demonstrated a good fit and explained a substantial proportion of variance in the endogenous constructs (r²=0.671 for marital adjustment and r²=0.805 for alexithymia). the direct path coefficients from both self-differentiation (β=0.598, p<0.001) and emotional–sexual needs fulfillment (β=0.220, p<0.001) to marital adjustment were statistically significant and positive. in contrast, the direct path coefficient from alexithymia to marital adjustment was statistically significant and negative (β=−0.128, p<0.001). in addition, emotional–sexual needs fulfillment (β=−0.553, p<0.001) and self-differentiation (β=−0.298, p<0.001) had significant negative direct effects on alexithymia. furthermore, the indirect effects on marital adjustment via alexithymia were statistically significant for emotional–sexual needs fulfillment (β=0.075, p<0.01) and self-differentiation (β=0.041, p<0.01), confirming the mediating role of alexithymia. conclusion: the results demonstrate that self-differentiation and emotional-sexual needs fulfillment contribute positively to marital adjustment, while alexithymia exerts a negative influence. these findings can be explained within systemic theories and emotion-processing perspectives, suggesting that higher levels of self-differentiation and greater emotional-sexual needs fulfillment, enhance emotional awareness and expression, hereby improving marital adjustment.