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Relationships Between Emotional Regulation and Marital Satisfaction

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Emotion is one of the important psychological variables studied in exploring psychological well-being of married individuals. The aim of this research is to identify the relationships between emotional regulation and marital satisfaction among married couples. This study adapts the exploratory study research design using questionnaires. DERS-18 and ENRICH marital satisfaction scale were applied to measure both variables. Questions regarding personal background were also presented to identify the participants. Questionnaires were distributed to participants residing in seven districts with the area of Hulu Langat, Selangor, Malaysia to enable researcher in achieving the objective of this study. Data from collected questionnaires were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics version 25 software. Results show that there is a positive and significant relationship between emotional regulation, specifically, awareness, and marital satisfaction (r= 0.24**, n= 304, p=0.000). Implication of this study suggests that the ability of married individuals to regulate emotions have important relationships in achieving marital satisfaction. Future studies need to focus on examining variety aspects and domains of regulation emotion to understand this phenomenon within marital well-being better. Implication of this study were also discussed from the field of psychology and also practical aspects for helping professions working with married couples.

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