Introduction:

The family institution is one of the most central educational environments that plays a significant role in maintaining a person's mental, social and physical health. The family environment is considered a safe place for people, which is able to provide peace, well-being and satisfaction of emotional needs, physiology and the flourishing of talent in family members, playing the role of members and logical communication in it in a suitable way. Each member of the family may have characteristics that lead the family to excellence or downfall. Since marital satisfaction strengthens family relationships and increases work efficiency and creates a healthy and dynamic society, reducing marital conflicts is essential. Too much conflict creates unfortunate consequences for couples and families and provides the basis for the collapse of the relationship. Therefore, it is important to intervene in marriage, to calm down and reduce the couple's distress because of the severe negative consequences associated with it (Roy, 1998).Conflict is a natural and inevitable result of human communication (Kantek & Gezer, 2009). The basis of most intimate relationships is the feeling of resentment of one of the spouses, and body language plays an essential role in reflecting and manifesting the underlying emotions in conflicts. For this reason, it is very important to pay less attention to the content of the conflict and pay more attention to the way the conflict is expressed. The concept of conflict refers to the lack of agreement between spouses (Houshmandi, Ahmadi & Kiamanesh, 2018) and it means that a person sees a mismatch between his goals, expectations and needs or personal desires and those of the opposite party (Callian & Siewgeok, 2009). Marital relationship and when the spouses assume their roles as a couple, some of them may be fulfilled and some may remain unfinished, so the situation of tension and stress is created between the spouses (Tolorunleke, 2014).

Today, the causes of marital conflicts have become a very important issue that affects the relationship of every husband and wife ( ^Mbwirire, 2017). Collins attributes the occurrence of conflict between men and women depending on their power sources and the stresses that occur during their lives, the power sources include the employment status of men and women, the network of social relationships of each of them, sexual problems, the amount of income and the amount It is education, stressful events of family life can be positive or negative, negative events, such as unemployment and job loss, bankruptcy and financial issues, diseases and the like may cause conflicts in families. From Sexton's point of view, conflict occurs when something provides satisfaction to a person, while the same thing leads to deprivation for another.. Systemic therapists see conflict as a result of any kind of conflict over the possession of the base and sources of power between couples (Yang & Long, 1998). Researches on the destructive effects of marital conflicts show that marital conflicts have harmful effects on physical, mental and family health (Finchman & Bach, 1999); Also, marital conflicts are related to important consequences in the family, such as ineffective parenting, poor adaptation of children, increasing the probability of parent-child conflicts (Gerish & Finchman, 2001).

Evidence shows that a high level of marital conflict is related to the relationships of family members (Lindsey, Colwell, Frabutt, MacKinnon- Lewis, 2006); Based on this, among the factors affecting marital conflicts, we can mention the way of expressing and not expressing emotions, just as expressing emotions can enrich the marital relationship, not speaking and not expressing emotions has a negative effect on this relationship and reduces the life satisfaction of couples. Gives. Considering the effect that variables such as expression of excitement and feelings, expression of emotions and empathy and interpersonal relationships have on marital satisfaction and problems in these areas lead to low marital satisfaction, it is necessary to pay attention to these variables.Emotional dysphoria is one of these problems. Emotional dysphoria is the inability to cognitively process emotional information and regulate emotions, and it includes the components of difficulty in recognizing emotions and distinguishing between emotions and physical stimuli related to emotional arousal, difficulty in describing emotions, weakness in imagination, objective cognitive style, and external intellectual orientation. (Sifneos, 2000). In describing these people, Taylor, Parker, Bagby, and Ecklin state that people with emotional dyslexia magnify normal bodily stimuli, misinterpret physical signs of emotional arousal, show emotional helplessness through physical complaints, and in therapeutic measures. They look for physical signs (Besharat, 2018). In fact, the basic characteristics that are needed to establish an intimate relationship are low in these people with emotional dyslexia (Sprecher, Metts, Burleson, Hatfield, Thompson, 1995). De Rick & Vanheule (2007) believe that people with emotional dyslexia have a strong need for affiliation, which results in doubt and mistrust of others. Due to indifference and lack of interest towards others, many interpersonal problems have been observed in people with emotional dyslexia (Beshart, 2018). These people have difficulty in expressing their needs to others and do not have the ability to deal with interpersonal challenges in social situations (Vanheule, Desmet, Meganck, Bogaerts, 2007). They confirm intimacy (Weinrib, Gustafsson, Hellstrom, Anderson, Broberg and Gunner, 1996). One of the variables that seems to be effective in the formation of marital conflicts is the concept of harshness, in fact, harshness as a personality trait creates a certain internal attitude that affects the way people face different issues in life. (Arefi & Mohsenzadeh, 2012); At the same time, many people consider facing life's events as boring, boring or even threatening. At the same time, many people consider facing life's events as boring, boring or even threatening. Stubborn people feel more in control of life events and evaluate environmental events in a meaningful way, while non-stubborn people feel alienated, powerless, and threatened by life events (Sabzalizadeh, Badami & Nazakat Al-Hosseini, 2013). The results of Lambert's research (2007) showed that stubbornness is an acquired and learned characteristic, not just an inherent characteristic. According to Kobasa, this acquired characteristic (stubbornness) consists of three components: commitment, control and struggle. A person who has a high commitment to food believes in the Brahmin, the value and meaning of who he is and what he does, and on this basis he is able to find meaning in everything he does and arouse his curiosity. People who are strong in the control component consider life events to be predictable and controllable and believe that they are able to influence everything that happens around them with effort. Personality characteristics and especially stubbornness as an example of these characteristics can affect the level of life satisfaction. Because stubborn people find life events less stressful; Therefore, they can have a more effective adjustment with their spouse, and therefore, more similarity in personality traits predicts more negative slopes in the risks of marital satisfaction (Shiota & levinson, 2007). In the research of Bahramian and Bahramian (2013), the role of psychological toughness and forgiveness in predicting marital compatibility was examined, and the results of their research showed that there is a positive relationship between toughness and marital compatibility, and it is interesting that the research of Moin, Ghiashi and Masmoei (2015) also confirmed this issue. Therefore, in this study, with the aim of predicting marital conflicts based on emotional ataxia with the intermediary variable of psychological toughness of couples, the following hypothesis was tested:

1. Emotional alexithymia with the mediating variable of psychological toughness are able to predict couples' marital conflicts.

Method:

The method of this research is descriptive and correlational. The statistical population of the research was all the couples in Shiraz city. Considering that the target population includes people who had referred to counseling centers in Shiraz city due to marital conflicts, while observing the principles of ethics related to counseling and psychotherapy and obtaining their consent, they were asked to answer the research questionnaires regarding the spread of Corona virus. and answer the existing restrictions online. In this research, the sample size according to Bentler and Bonnet (1980) guidelines is 15 people for each variable, considering that the selected samples were 331 people, of which 31 people were dropped and finally 300 people were selected through lottery using the sampling method. were randomly selected; The inclusion criteria of the participants in this research included consent to cooperate in the research, the passing of 5 years of cohabitation and couples who are involved in marital conflicts, who for this reason referred to counseling and psychotherapy centers in Shiraz city, and the exit criteria included unwillingness to participate in the study. Research and incomplete completion of questionnaires.

Research tool:

1. Marital conflicts questionnaire:

This questionnaire was made by Saanai Zaker (2017), which has 42 items on a 5-point Likert scale from never (1) to always (5). This questionnaire has seven subscales of decreasing cooperation, decreasing sexual relations, increasing emotional reactions, increasing child support, increasing personal relations with relatives, decreasing family relations with spouse's relatives and friends, and separating financial affairs from each other. The highest total score of the questionnaire is 210 and the lowest is 42. Cronbach's alpha for the entire questionnaire on a group of 32 people equals 0.53 And for its 7 subscales, it was as follows: reduction of cooperation 0.53 decrease in sex. , increasing emotional reactions 0.73 , increasing child support 0.60 , increasing personal relationship with your relatives 0.64 , reduction of family relationship with spouse's relatives and friends 64/. and separating financial affairs from each other 0.51. Also, the questionnaire of marital conflicts has a suitable content validity (Rasouli, 2015). In this study, the reliability coefficients based on Cronbach's alpha were 0.96 for decreased cooperation, 0.97 for decreased sexual relations, 0.96 for increased emotional reactions, 0.96 for increasing child support, 0.95 for increasing personal relations with relatives, and 0.95 for decreasing family relations. With spouse's relatives and friends, it was 0.94, separation of financial affairs was 0.97, and the overall reliability coefficient score of marital conflicts was estimated at 0.98. also; Content validity was also reported using the opinion of experts in the field of psychology.

2. Toronto Emotional Dyslexia Scale:

The Toronto Dyslexia Scale (Biggie, Barker and Taylor, 1994; quoted by Bashart et al., 2014) is a 20-question test and three subscales of difficulty in describing emotions and objective thinking in a 5-point Likert scale, score 1 ( totally disagree) to 5 (totally agree). Questions 1, 3, 6, 7, 9, 13, 14 determine the difficulty in identifying emotions, questions 2, 4, 11, 12, 17 determine the difficulty in describing emotions and the rest of the questions determine objective thinking. A total score is also calculated from the sum of the scores of the three subscales for general emotional dyslexia. The psychometric properties of the Toronto-20 alexithymia scale have been examined and confirmed in several studies (Parker, Taylor, Bigi, 2003). In the Persian version of the Toronto Ataxia Scale-20, Cronbach's alpha coefficients for total ataxia, and three subscales of difficulty in identifying emotions, difficulty in describing emotions, and objective thinking were calculated as 85%, 82%, 75%, and 72% respectively, which indicates The internal consistency of the scale is good. The test-retest reliability of the Toronto Ataxia scale-20 was confirmed in a sample of 67 people on two occasions with an interval of four weeks from 80% to 87% for the total ataxia and different subscales (Bashart et al., 2013). In the present study, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained for the total score of dyslexia at 0.795.

3. Stubbornness Questionnaire:

This questionnaire was prepared by Kubasa and Madi (1982) to measure stubbornness. This test consists of 20 and 3 components (commitment, control, struggle). The purpose of this questionnaire is to evaluate the level of stubbornness and its factors in people. The scoring method of this questionnaire is a 4-point Likert scale (never=4, rarely=3, sometimes= 2, and often=1). The total score of these questions is considered as the subject's stubbornness score, and the higher this score is, the higher the respondent's stubbornness, and vice versa. The questions of the commitment component are (91), the control component questions are (10-16), and the struggle component questions are (20-17). To measure the overall score of this test, the score of each question is added together and considered as the level of belief in prayer in the respondent. To measure the score for each factor, the scores of the questions in that dimension are added together. Kubasa and Madi (1992) consider this test to have adequate construct validity. This test was standardized by Zare and Aminpour (2010) on the students of Payam Noor University. The results show the appropriate internal consistency of this questionnaire. Based on principal component analysis and Varimax rotation, 3 factors were extracted after 7 iterations. These three factors explain 50.16% of the total variance of the test. The total Cronbach's alpha results were 0.91 and 0.84 for the commitment component, 0.82 for the control component, and 0.75 for the combative component. The reliability coefficient of this questionnaire was obtained using Cronbach's alpha in the present study at 0.881.

Implementation method:

After writing correspondence with the Fars Welfare Department, as well as the permission of the Lawyers Center, official experts and family advisors of the Judiciary, we got access to all the files of the clients of this field, and after that, 300 files were selected by lottery. By referring to Raz Counseling and Psychotherapy Center, explanations were given about the research and its purpose, as well as an explanation about the questionnaires and how to fill them, as well as the confidentiality of the research results, then the questionnaires of marital conflicts, emotional ataxia, and stubbornness were completed by the research samples, and the results Using correlation coefficients and step-by-step regression with the twenty-fourth version of S. P. S. S was analyzed.

Findings:

Out of 300 participants in the research, 99 (33%) were men and 201 (77%) were women. 14 people (4.66) of these people have primary education, 59 people (19.66) have diploma, 28 people (5.6) have associate degree, 126 people (25.2) have bachelor's degree, 59 people (19.66) have master's degree and 14 people (66 4) They had a doctorate degree. The average and standard deviation of the age of the participants in the research are 37.39 and 8.90, respectively, and the average and standard deviation of their marriage time is 12.66 and 9.33, respectively.

Table 1: The results of mean and standard deviation, skewness and elongation, tolerance coefficient, inflation and Watson camera and correlation coefficient of research variables (N=300)

The above table shows that skewness and elongation are between ±2; Therefore, the data distribution of research variables is normal. The value of the Watson camera is within the allowed distance of 1.5 to 2.5. Therefore, the assumption of no correlation between errors is confirmed and regression can be used. The tolerance coefficient and variance inflation values also show the lack of overlap between predictor variables.

Also, the Pearson correlation coefficient results showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between the score of the components of marital conflicts with emotional ataxia and the total score of psychological toughness (p=0.001).

Table 2: The results of multivariate variance analysis of the step-by-step regression model for predicting marital conflicts based on emotional ataxia and the mediation of psychological toughness.

In the above table, the values ​​of Pearson correlation coefficient R, multiple determination coefficient 2R, adjusted R square, beta coefficient and standard error of estimation are presented. According to the results obtained from Table 2, in the first step, the cooperation reduction component was entered into the predicted equation and it alone explains 0.64% of the changes in the variable of emotional ataxia, which has a beta coefficient (β = 0.21) at the level of ( p=0.001) is significant. In the second step, the reduction of sex has been entered into the predicted equation, and with the inclusion of this variable, the coefficient of determination has increased to 65%. Standard coefficients of both predictor changes are significant with beta coefficient (β=0.34) at the level (p=0.001). In the third step, the increase in emotional reactions has been entered into the predicted equation, and with the inclusion of this variable, the coefficient of determination has increased to 61%; that this value is significant with a beta coefficient (β=0.43) at the level of (p=0.001) and in the fourth step, increasing the child's support is entered into the equation and the coefficient is determined to be 41%, which is a value with a beta coefficient (β0.48) =) is significant at the level (p=0.001). In the fifth step, the increase of individual relationship with relatives is entered into the equation and the determination coefficient is 0.66%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.51) at the level (p=0.001). In the sixth step, the reduction of family relationship with relatives, spouse and friends is entered into the equation and the determination coefficient is 0.41%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.46) at the level of (p=0.001). In the seventh step, separating financial affairs from each other is entered into the equation and the coefficient is determined as 0.63%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.41) at the level of (p=0.001). In the eighth step, the difficulty in identifying emotions is entered into the equation and the coefficient of determination is 0.63%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.40) at the level of (p=0.001). In the ninth step, the difficulty in describing emotions is entered into the equation and the determination coefficient is 0.68%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.48) at the level of (p=0.001). In the tenth step, objective thinking is entered into the equation and the coefficient of determination is 0.67%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.52) at the level of (p=0.001) and in the last step, stubbornness is entered into the equation and The coefficient of determination is 0.38%, which is significant with the beta coefficient (β=0.43) at the level of (p=0.001).

Discussion and conclusion:

The aim of the present study was to predict marital conflicts based on emotional ataxia with the intermediary variable of psychological toughness of couples. The results of Pearson's correlation coefficient showed that there is a relationship between the score of the components of marital conflicts and emotional dyslexia and the total score of stubbornness. Also, the results of stepwise multivariate regression showed that the dimensions of difficulty in identifying emotions, difficulty in describing emotions and objective thinking, emotional ataxia variable and the mediating role of stubbornness could predict couples' marital conflicts. The results of this study with the researches of Houshmandi et al. (2018); Sabzalizadeh et al. (2013); Bahramian and Bahramian (2013); Arefi and Mohsenzadeh (2012); Besharat (2009); MB Wireer (2017); Tolorenlek (2014); Kantek and Geser (2009) and Shiota and Levinson (2007) are aligned.

In explaining the findings, it can be stated that the family acts as a cellular tissue for social organs and from the time it starts its functions, establishing a strong and permanent bond between a man and a woman is realized, which is called marriage. One of the important functions of the family is establishing emotional relationships between men and women and expanding psychological health, which is a source of comfort for both of them. One of the common problems in the family is marital conflict. Almost no husband and wife get married with the intention of divorce, but the changes in the life of couples lead to disagreement, conflict, psycho-emotional separation and sometimes divorce (Bahari, 2018); However, it seems that the intensity of the conflict alone does not determine the stability of married life because sometimes the personal conditions of each couple, such as resilience; patience; Hope; Forgiveness and ways to resolve marital conflict can be difficult for at least one of the couples to tolerate the same amount of conflict even if there is a normal range of conflict. Nevertheless, these conflicts can lead to the weakening of marital relations, the weakening of children's adaptation, the possibility of increasing conflicts between parents and children and also between relatives (Ajam, 2014); The results of this research showed that marital conflicts, emotional ataxia and psychological stubbornness have an effect in this field. According to the findings of the research, one of the reasons for the maximum satisfaction of some people with their married life is their high control over marital conflicts; In such a way that if we grade the intensity of marital conflicts in a range from low to high, the intensity of these conflicts and the amount of crisis they create in the married life of people are high. The cause of this problem is the type of reaction and strategies that these people adopt when facing conflict-provoking situations and contexts. One of the most important issues that can be seen in each of the adopted strategies is avoiding the thinking of being a winner and a loser; In the sense that "if I don't fail, I will fail"; It means identifying the problem and trying to solve the problem instead of trying to blame, using loving words and avoiding insults and not involving the people around and close ones in finding a solution for marital problems. . Based on different theoretical approaches, different explanations about the etiology of marital conflicts have been presented. One of these comprehensive explanations is based on the opinions of William Glaser, which he presented based on the selection theory (Shiweh and Mousavi, 2013). Based on this, marital conflicts are caused by inconsistency between husband and wife in the type of needs and the method of satisfying them, self-centeredness, differences in desires, behavioral schemas and irresponsible behavior towards marital relationship and marriage. He believes that all humans are born with five genetic needs, the need for love and belonging, freedom, power, fun, and the need for survival, and all people's behaviors, including marital behaviors, are aimed at meeting these needs. The importance and priority of these five needs varies from one person to another, and people's awareness of the unique pattern of their basic needs can play an important role in making healthy and productive choices in their personal and social lives (Glaser, 2000, 1998). And for example, people who have a high degree of need for freedom; They are more exposed to conflicts and dissatisfaction in their deep interpersonal relationships, especially marital relationships. Due to the fact that emotions and emotions play an important role in intimate relationships between couples. Therefore, lack of emotions makes couples face many problems and reduces marital satisfaction, because the basic features needed to establish an intimate relationship are lacking in people with emotional failure. People with emotional dyslexia show lower levels of empathy, which is necessary for an intimate relationship. Recent research shows that emotional dyslexia has negative effects on psychological and emotional well-being and is a risk factor for people suffering from emotional distress, psychological problems, and diagnosis of mental illness (Matila, Ahola, Honken, Selmin, Hotala, and Jokama, 2007). In the explanation of emotional dyslexia, various views have been presented, and studies show that people's emotional competence makes it easier for them to face life's challenges and, as a result, they enjoy better mental health. slow (Lewers, Mayer, Nedham and Torberg, 2019). Emotionally capable people recognize their feelings, understand their implicit concepts and express their emotional states to others in a more effective way; Compared to people who do not have the ability to understand and express emotional states, these people are more successful in coping with negative experiences and show more appropriate adaptation in relation to the environment and work (Lankes, Skikofer, Eichhammer and Butch, 2020). When the level of emotional awareness increases in a person, the emotional differentiation of a person from others also increases, and in the absence of such differentiation, emotions remain general and undifferentiated and leads to the individual's relative inability to use emotions to produce adaptive behavior (Yazdi, Ashrafi and Fathi-Ashtiani, 2017). The results of the present study also showed that emotional non-verbal components significantly predict marital conflicts. It seems that difficulty in recognizing feelings, difficulty in describing feelings and having objective thinking significantly affects and increases the marital conflicts of couples. There are several evidences that show that stubbornness can be a predictable measure of marital adjustment and intimacy, for example, Maddy and Hess (1992) found in their research that stubbornness leads to adjustment, or in other words, psychological toughness. It is possible to predict people's marital compatibility because stubborn people see life events as less stressful; Therefore, they can adapt to life more effectively. These findings are also in line with the research of Clemens and Swinsen (2000), who believe that commitment in spouses is positively related to marital stability and quality, and is also positively related to expressing love and compatibility and reducing marital conflicts. Regarding the limitations of the current research, it can be acknowledged that since the topic of the research is one of the most challenging topics in the society and it is one of the taboos of the society, the honesty in answering the questionnaires could be questioned. Therefore, due to the cultural and social issues of the society and the laws of the Islamic society, the audience avoided expressing the facts and did not want to express the facts. Another limitation of the research is the small amount of research, which has specifically dealt with the relationship of the research variables and the investigation of its dimensions, thus making it difficult to compare the results of the research with other internal researches; Also, considering that all the participants in this research were from Shiraz city, therefore, due to the specific characteristics of Iranian subcultures and different local conditions, the results of this research should be used with caution. Therefore, it is suggested that in future researches, in order to further generalize the results of this research, it should be implemented on more samples and different communities. The use of longitudinal studies and other research methods (combination including qualitative and quantitative) can be more beneficial for investigating this study. In this way, it is suggested to use a qualitative study to investigate the factors affecting marital conflicts. The use of several simultaneous measurement methods such as observation and interview for variables affecting marital conflicts can better show the role of these variables, and considering that constructs such as emotional ataxia and stubbornness are part of complex processes that are not fully designed in the current research, it is suggested In future research, other antecedent factors such as personality characteristics, emotional characteristics and other marital functions such as marital self-regulation, marital boredom, positive feelings towards spouse and marital intimacy can be addressed.

Moral standards:

Ethical considerations have been observed in the research by obtaining the informed consent of the participants; Also, people were assured about the confidentiality of the results.

Thank:

The cooperation of the technical officer of Raz Counseling and Psychotherapy Center as well as all the participants in the research is thanked and appreciated.

Conflict of interest:

According to the authors' statement, this article has no financial sponsor or conflict of interest.