The relationship between emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction: 10-year outcome of partners from three different economic levels

Back ground: emotional communication and economic factors play an important role in having a satisfying relationship and a more successful marriage. in this regard,we investigated the 10-year outcome of partners from three different economic levels regarding the relationship between emotional intelligence (ei) and marital satisfaction. objective: the research was designed as a descriptive-correlative survey and data were analyzed using pearson correlation test and stepwise regression. methods and material: participants were 159 couples (n = 318) who were randomly selected through clustered sampling. the questionnaires included: bar-on emotional intelligence (1997) and enrich marital satisfaction (1989). results: the findings revealed that the average values of emotional intelligence (m = 333.1) and marital satisfaction (m = 300.77) were high in the under-rich region (p < 0.05). moreover,there was no significant relationship between interpersonal and marital satisfaction within the under-rich region. on average,emotional intelligence accounted for 40.8% of marital satisfaction within those three regions (p < 0.01). conclusion: the results of the regression analysis showed that general mood is the most effective factor changing marital satisfaction in the three studied regions (r2= 0.34),rich (r2= 0.42) and semi-rich (r2= 0.52) regions (p < 0.01). the most influential factor changing marital satisfaction in the under-rich (r2= 0.28) region was found to be stress management (p < 0.01).