@2024 Afarand., IRAN

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ISSN: 2252-0805    The Horizon of Medical Sciences 2018;24(3):214-222

Background
Marital satisfaction is in fact a positive and enjoyable attitude that the husband and wife have of different marital relationships. Marital Satisfaction has various dimensions such as satisfaction with sexual relations, communication, personality traits, relationships with others, participation in decision making, relationship with the spouse's family, how to spend leisure time, and religious commonalities [1].
Previous Studies
… [2-5]. The studies conducted by Das and Lawrence, which were conducted to assess the quality of sexual relations of newly married couples, including couples without children and with children (parents) over a 3- to 4-year period, have shown the reduction of marital satisfaction and emotional expression in both groups. One of the variables that has changed more in the parent group was the decline in the time spent on joint activities and sexual satisfaction; however, it is obvious that child care necessarily reduces the time of joint activities [7, 6]. … [8-10]. In a study carried out in Sweden, Wilderson found that men with “fear of childbirth” are likely to have a weaker physical and mental health and have a negative prediction of being a parent. In fact, men like women also experience a significant level of parental stress in the first 12 months of childbirth [11]. In the Holdingson’s study, which was performed in two groups on 1047 men with a pregnant woman in Sweden, according to the "fear of childbirth", fathers were monitored for physical and mental health from mid-pregnancy to 1 year of the birth of a child. The results showed that "fear of childbirth" was accompanied by a decrease in participation in prenatal classes and a decrease in physical and mental health, and in fact parents had higher stress scores [12].
Aim(s)
The aim of this study was to compare marital satisfaction in men without children and men with first and second children in passage parenting.
Research type
This research is a correlation study.
Research society, place and time
The statistical population consisted of all men, who were referred to health centers in Mashhad for Infant control in 2013.
Sampling method and number
The study was conducted on 180 men (3 groups of 60 men without children and with first and second children). The sampling method was multi-stage. In the first stage, 5 health centers in Mashhad were considered as class. In the second stage, the health centers covered by each of the 5 centers of health was randomly selected, using a random number table and in the third stage, the research unit was selected as available. The final sample size was calculated and determined according to the following formula. N=( )2+3 C=0.5 ln(1+r/1-r), α=0.05، β=0.2، r=0.7 The inclusion criteria of the present research were: Being literate, living currently with her husband. No history of mental illness (brain diseases and illness, drug use, history of admission to a psychiatric hospital, not being under the supervision of a psychiatrist or psychologist) or high-dose illness (cancer, AIDS, chemotherapy, amputation or spinal cord and paralysis, blindness, deafness and speechlessness) or history of drug use, psychosis or alcohol. First marriage of the couples. Not living his/her parents and his/her spouse's parents. In the group of men without children, they must have had at least 1 year of their common life without the history of infertility. In the group of men with 1 child, the infant's age should be between 6 weeks and 6 months. In men with 2 children, the age of the first child should be less than 8. Child should be healthy (cardiovascular, pulmonary, renal, hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy, endocrine disorder, mental and backwardness, and genetic disorders) and should not be twain and stepchild. No terrible incident occurred, such as death of close relatives or financial breakdowns in the last 3 months. Exclusion criteria consisted of the discontinuation of the completion of questionnaires by men and incomplete completion of questionnaires by a maximum of 5% by men.
Used devices&materials
… [13, 14]. The instruments included demographic information questionnaire, Enrich marital satisfaction scale, and the severity of the passage parenting were used. In this research, short form of Enrich marital satisfaction scale was used. The scoring method of the questionnaire as a 5-choice (which is essentially a Likert-type attitude) [15]. The reliability, calculated by Cronbach's alpha, was 0.75. Another instrument was the reformed scale of passage parenting. The questions are in the 5-point Likert scale; by adding scores, the total score of passage parenting is calculated [16]. Its reliability was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha α=0.79, and for each dimension, dimension 1: 0.78, dimension 2: 0.74, dimension 3: 0.81 and dimension 4: 0.70,respectively, was obtained. After obtaining the approval of the Ethics Committee of the University and a report from the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, the researcher referred to the family health units (child control) each morning at the office hours, and after providing explanations on the research objectives and the point is that the questionnaires are anonymous and completely confidential, in case of having will and inclusion criteria, the participants first signed the informed consent form and, then, completed the questionnaires. The data were analyzed by SPSS 16 software. First, it was determined if the qualitative variables have the normal distribution by Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. Chi-square test was used to compare the 3 groups in terms of nominal qualitative variables and for the rank qualitative variables, Kruskal–Wallis test was used. One-way ANOVA (ANOVA) was used to compare normal variables and Kruskal–Wallis test was used for abnormal quantitative variables. T-test and Mann-Whitney T test were used to compare the two groups.
Findings by Text
The age range of men was between 21 and 52 years old and the mean was 32.52 ± 5.52 years. 2.8% of men had elementary education, 3.9% had secondary education, 29.4% had high school education, and 57.2% had higher education. The marital satisfaction of men was not significantly different between the 3 groups (p=0.19; Table 1). Education and age did not have a significant relationship with marital satisfaction of men with the first and second child. Economic status and duration of marriage did not have a significant relationship with marital satisfaction of men without children and with the first child. But, the marital satisfaction of men with the second child had a significant relationship with economic status (p=0.009; r=0.33) and did not have a significant relationship with the duration of marriage (p=0.61). In examining the most important factors related to marital satisfaction in men, the most important predictor was the difficulty of passage parenting, which predicted 16.4% (p<0.001; Table 2). There was no significant difference between the two groups of men with the first and second children in the difficulty of passing parenting (p = 0.58). Marital satisfaction of men with children decreased with increasing difficulty of passing parenting in the dimension of responsibilities and limitations of parents, and dimension of satisfaction of parents (Table 3).
Main comparison to the similar studies
According to the findings, marital satisfaction was not significantly different between the 3 groups, which was consistent with the study of Muller, but was not in line with the study conducted by Das and Lawrence. In a study carried out by Das in Texas, "passing parenting" had a negative impact on marital relationships that arose suddenly and was sustained over time in certain areas of marital satisfaction, and had a significant statistical relationship with a number of factors associated with individual characteristics, types of marriage, and the birth of a child (as a stressful event) [6]. The results of the Lawrence’s study also showed that marital satisfaction was higher in early pregnancy compared to early marriage. The marital satisfaction decline was higher for parented couples than for unparented couples. Planned pregnancy increased marital satisfaction after delivery [7]. … [17]. In this study, marital satisfaction of men with difficulty of passing parenting had a significant negative correlation with Cowan's study as well as Crohn and Mitnick’ study [18-20]. In other words, marital satisfaction declined with increasing difficulty of passing parenting, probably due to the fact that, according to the results of Dolano-Hoffner studies, the passing parenting is a turning point for men in terms of manhood identity [21, 22]. … [23, 30].
Suggestions
It is suggested that more research be performed with a larger sample size, so that measuring the subscales of quality of life is applicable.
Limitations
The limitations of this research were individual differences, mental status, and the responding time of research units, and environmental factors such as light, heat, and noise due to clients referred to health centers.
Conclusions
The marital satisfaction of men is not related to the birth of a child.
Acknowledgments
This article is a part of the master's thesis for midwifery under the code 920690. Herby we would like to express our gratitude to the support of the vice chancellor for research at the University and the Faculty of Nursing and Midwifery, the Ethics Committee of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences, the health authorities, the research participants, and all individuals, who helped us in any way in the implementation of this project.
Conflict of interest
There is no conflict of interest.
Ethical Permissions
None declared by the authors.
Funding Sources
This research was funded by the Vice-Chancellor for Research of Mashhad University of Medical Sciences.

TABLES and CHARTS

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