Facebook Addiction as an Intermediate Variable Between Marital Satisfaction and Emotional Communication Among A Sample of Married Couples in Tulkarm Governorate

Abstract

The current study sought to build a proposed theoretical model for the causal relationship between the three study variables (addiction to Facebook, marital satisfaction, and emotional communication), and then to validate the proposed model. The study aims to identify (addiction to Facebook as a mediating variable between marital satisfaction and emotional communication among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate), and to investigate the level of each of these three variables, and the differences in the averages of each of them according to the variables: (sex, age, and qualification). education, nature of work, place of residence, and number of years of marriage). The study used the descriptive correlative approach in the path analysis method, as the study measures were applied to an available sample that included (114) husbands and wives in Tulkarm Governorate, in the year 2020/2021 AD. The results showed that the level of addiction to Facebook among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate was moderate, as the arithmetic mean of the total score was (2.34) and a percentage of (46.8%), and the results showed that the level of marital satisfaction among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate was High, as the arithmetic mean of the total score was (4.10) with a percentage of (82%). The results also showed that the level of emotional communication among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate was high, as the arithmetic mean of the total score was (4.12) with a percentage of (82.4 %), and the results showed a statistically significant correlation between addiction to Facebook and marital satisfaction among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate, where the value of the Pearson correlation coefficient was (-0.186), and the relationship was inversely negative; It also found a statistically significant correlation between marital satisfaction and emotional communication among a sample of couples in Tulkarm Governorate, where the value of the Pearson correlation coefficient was (0.831), and the relationship was positive; The results of the path analysis indicated that there is a path between marital satisfaction and addiction to Facebook; the existence of a pathway between addiction to Facebook and emotional connection; The value of the indirect effect of marital satisfaction on emotional communication was (0.24), and this indicates that the mediating variable contributed to reducing the relationship between marital satisfaction on emotional communication, and thus the effect is different from zero in the presence of the mediating variable, and therefore the mediating variable (addiction on Facebook) is a partial mediator of the relationship between the independent variable (marital satisfaction) and the dependent variable (emotional communication). The results showed that there were no statistically significant differences on the Facebook addiction scale due to the variables: gender, age, educational qualification, place of residence, number of years of marriage, while there were no statistically significant differences on the marital satisfaction scale due to the variables: age, educational qualification, and place of residence. , the number of years of marriage, while the differences were statistically significant on the marital satisfaction scale due to the gender variable, in favor of the husband, and the results showed that there were no statistically significant differences on the total degree of the emotional communication scale due to the variables of gender, age, educational qualification, place of residence, number of years marriage.