Abstract

Objective: The present study examines the association between sexuality and dyadic adjustment in three groups of couples. Method: In this research; first group consists of couples who have a demand for professional counselling (n=50) (Marital Counselling Unit-EDAM). Second group consists of couples who were sent by the family law court for marital counselling (n=50) and the control group consists of nonpatients (n=50). In evaluation, in addition to Dyadic Adjustment Scale, semistructured question form naire together socio demographical data and sexual life was used. Results: The sociodemographical characteristics of the three groups such as mean age, duration of marriage, birthplace and religious belief were found similar and the others such as educational level, age at marriage, types of marriage, socioeconomic status and social security status were found statistically different. At the comparison of dyadic adjustment of couples who have and don"t have sexual dysfunction; the dyadic adjustment of couples who don"t have sexual dysfunction was found significantly higher in the control group. The dyadic adjustment did not show statistical significance in the the family law court group and EDAM"s group. Conclusion: Results indicated that in the family law court group and EDAM"s group sexual dysfunction was not significantly associated with dyadic adjustment, but in the control group sexual dysfunction was directly correlated with dyadic adjustment.

Key words: Sexuality, dyadic adjustment, marriage, couples