Emotional Abuse and Marital Relationship Satisfaction among Married Working Women in Pakistan: The Mediating Role of Self-Esteem

Emotional abuse occurred in marital relationships is a major psychological issue that can be linked to women's self-esteem and marital relationship fulfillment. The use of criticism, humiliation, intimidation, manipulation and controlling behaviour can cause emotional insecurity and have a negative impact on relationship evaluations. The present study aimed to explore the correlation between emotional abuse and marital relationship satisfaction among married working women of Rawalpindi – Islamabad twin cities, Pakistan with the role of self-esteem assumed as a mediator. The study employed a quantitative, cross sectional correlational design of 200 married working women who were drawn using purposive sampling. A demographic information sheet, an emotional abuse measure, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES), and the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) were used to assess data. Data available were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson product–moment correlations, and one-way analysis of variance. Emotional abuse was negatively correlated with marital relationship satisfaction, r = −.389, p < .001. However, emotional abuse was positively correlated with self-esteem, r = .215, p = .002, contrary to the expected direction. Self-esteem was not significantly correlated with marital relationship satisfaction, r = .003, p = .965. No major differences were found between working-hour groups with regard to emotional abuse or relationship satisfaction. Because indirect-effect analysis is not provided, the available results do not provide evidence for the mediation of self-esteem between emotional abuse and relationship satisfaction. The results underscore the need to investigate emotional abuse and marital relationship satisfaction, and to validate the instrument scores and proposed mediation model.