The Role of Emotional Intelligence and Marital Satisfaction in Life Quality of Women: A Structural Equation Modeling

Aim: This study was conducted to investigate the relationships between emotional intelligence, marital satisfaction and quality of life and examine the role of emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction in quality of life for women. Method: The current study was a descriptive-analytic research and of a correlational type, which was carried out using the structural equation modeling technique. In this study, 248 married women working at the elementary level of Education ‎in Sabzevar city during the 2016 school year were selected through simple random sampling and were evaluated using Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory (EQ-i), Hudson Index of Marital Satisfaction (IMS) and World Health Organization Quality of Life Questionnaire-BREF (WHOQOL-BREF). To examine the relationship between variables and to evaluate model fit, partial least squares approach was used in SmartPLS-2‎ software. Findings: The research findings indicated that emotional intelligence is effective in marital satisfaction with beta coefficient of 0.285 (t=4.793) and in quality of life with beta coefficient of 0.545 (t=15.563). The impact of marital satisfaction on quality of life with beta coefficient of 0.373 (t=9.240) was also approved. Further, the structural model designed based on the relationships between emotional intelligence, marital satisfaction and quality of life could cover 55% of the factors affecting the quality of life. Conclusion: Emotional intelligence and marital satisfaction are among the effective factors in quality of life for women.