Emotional empathy, adaptability, and couple functioning in compatible and incompatible young couples: A cross-sectional study

This study investigates the health of couple relationships and emphasizes the importance of improving the quality of communication among couples as a key aspect of community health. Given the decline in the quality of marital relations, marital and emotional problems, and the increase in divorce proceedings, identifying causal factors and preventing them is crucial. This research is cross-sectional in nature and involved a sample of 208 individuals, comprising 104 compatible couples and 104 incompatible couples. Using available sampling methods, participants were selected based on their referral to divorce centers or the absence of such referrals, with ages ranging from 20 to 35 years. Participants completed the emotional empathy scale (EES), (FACES-III), and the Enrich marital satisfaction scale (ECS). Independent t-test and Mann-Whitney U test were used for data analysis. The mean emotional empathy score for incompatible couples was 37.59 (SD=3.65). In contrast, compatible couples exhibited a mean emotional empathy score of 117.65 (SD=10.18). Regarding adaptability, incompatible couples had a mean score of 66.61 (SD=3.47), while compatible couples scored significantly higher, with a mean of 112.64 (SD=5.60). Finally, the mean marital functioning score for incompatible couples was 71.35 (SD=2.66), whereas compatible couples had a much lower mean score of 35.76 (SD=3.54). The results indicated that the significance level of Levene's test was less than 0.05 (P<0.0001), suggesting significant differences in the mean scores of emotional empathy, adaptability, and marital functioning between compatible and incompatible young couples. The findings revealed that incompatible young couples have lower emotional empathy and adaptability than the compatible sample, resulting in weaker couple functioning. This situation has led to ongoing conflicts and possibly serious actions toward divorce, which will have significant social consequences. Therefore, regularly monitoring couples and taking action to improve these variables are priorities for enhancing family systems.