Introduction
Marital satisfaction refers to people’s level of happiness from marital relationships. A good sexual relationship plays an important role in the success and stability of the marriage. Another factor that affects marital satisfaction is irrational beliefs. On the other hand, if the basic psychological needs in couples are met, the feeling of self-esteem and self-worth is formed, which leads to high marital satisfaction and well-being. Although there are several studies in this field, it is still not clear how these components together can predict marital satisfaction. The present study aims to provide the equation modeling of the relationship of irrational beliefs and sexual function with marital satisfaction mediated by basic psychological needs.

Methods 
This is a descriptive/correlational study using structural equation modeling (SEM). The study population consists of all men who visited the Aram clinic, located in the 1st district of Tehran, Iran, in 2022. Based on Klein’s rule, at least 20 samples are required for each parameter. Considering that the number of parameters in our study was 15, a minimum sample size of 300 was required. To prevent the possible sample dropout, it was increased to 357. Sampling was done using a purposive method. 
To collect data, the ENRICH Marital Life Satisfaction Scale, Eidelson and Epstein’s Relationship Belief Inventory, Rosen et al.’s Male Sexual Health Questionnaire, and LaGuardia et al.’s Basic Needs Satisfaction in General Scale were used. For statistical analysis, the SEM was used in Amos v.24 software. To evaluate the fit of the SEM model, several indices, including Goodness of Fit Index (GFI), Adjusted GFI (AGFI), Root Mean Squared Error of Approximation (RMSEA), Comparative Fit Index (CFI), and normed fit index (NFI), were used. The significance level was set at 0.05. 

Results 
The mean age of the participants was 36.59±7.29 years, and the mean age of their wives was 32.34±6.40 years. Among the participants, 149(41.7%) had less than 3 years of experience living with their wives; 64(17.9%) had 4-6 years of experience; 42 (11.8%) had 7-10 years of experience; and 102(28.6%) had more than 10 years of experience. The educational level of 16 participants (4.5%) was lower than high school; 102(28.6%) had high school diplomas, 16(4.5%) had associate degrees, 119(33.3%) had bachelor’s degrees, 104(29.1%) had master’s degrees or higher. The fit indices for the SEM model were as follows: χ2/df=2.49, GFI=0.91, AGFI=0.88, CFI=0.94, and RMSEA=0.065, which were acceptable (Table 1).



The results of data analysis showed irrational relationship beliefs had a negative relationship with marital satisfaction (r=-0.41; P<0.01), while sexual function (r=0.46; P<0.01) and basic psychological needs (r=0.56; P<0.01) had a positive relationship with marital satisfaction. Also, the indirect relationship between irrational relationship beliefs and marital satisfaction was negative and significant(β=-0.189, P=0.001), and the indirect relationship between sexual function and marital satisfaction was positive and significant (β=0.116, P=0.001) 

Conclusion 
Overall, the results of the present study showed that basic psychological needs significantly mediate the relationship of sexual function and irrational relationship beliefs with marital satisfaction in Iranian men. It is recommended that counseling centers educate married men with marital complaints on how to satisfy the basic psychological needs of their spouses and teach different ways to increase intimate relationships between couples. If the basic psychological needs of the spouses are met, their marital satisfaction increases. 

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch (Code: IR.RIAU.REC.1396.531). All ethical principles were considered in this article. All participants were informed about the procedures and their information was kept confidential.

Funding
This article was extracted from the PhD thesis of Sina Forouzmand, funded by Islamic Azad University, Roudehen Branch.

Authors contributions
The authors contributed equally to preparing this paper.

Conflicts of interest
The authors declared no conflict of interest

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the participants for their cooperation in this research.



 

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