Iran J Psychiatry Behav Sci. 2021 June; 15(2):e108339. Published online 2021 June 28. doi: 10.5812/ijpbs.108339. Research Article On the Causal Relationship Between Attachment Styles and Marital Satisfaction: Mediating Role of Gottman’s Marital Communication Model Maryam Mardani 1 , Sayed Ali Marashi 1, * and Zabihollah Abbaspour 2 1 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran 2 Department of Counseling, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran * Corresponding author: Department of Psychology, Faculty of Education and Psychology, Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz, Ahvaz, Iran. Email: sayedalimarashi@scu.ac.ir Received 2020 August 09; Revised 2021 April 01; Accepted 2021 May 15. Abstract Background: Marital satisfaction is one of the main factors affecting the quality of life in marital relationships. It refers to individ- uals’ positive attitudes toward their marital relationship, and marital dissatisfaction is a negative and displeased attitude toward various aspects of marital relationship. Objectives: The present study aimed to explore the causal relationship between attachment styles and marital satisfaction regard- ing the mediating role of Gottman’s marital communication model. Methods: The statistical population encompassed all university students in Ahvaz in the academic year 2019 - 2020. The multi-stage random sampling method was used, and 230 persons were selected as the study samples. Hudson’s Index of Marital Satisfaction (IMS), Coolins and Reed’s Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS), and Gottman’s Communication Skills Scale (FHS) were also used to collect the data. Data analysis was performed using SPSS software version 26 and AMOS software version 24. Results: The results indicated that the study model well-fitted the study population, and all direct paths were statistically signif- icant. Moreover, there was a significant relationship between secure attachment, anxiety-insecure attachment, and avoidance- insecure attachment with marital satisfaction mediated by Gottman’s communication skills (P ≤ 0.001). Conclusions: Given the effect of Gottman’s couple attachment styles and four communication skills on marital satisfaction, their effectiveness in marital satisfaction is proved. Accordingly, therapists are recommended to implement educational and treatment programs containing cognitive and preventive attachment styles and Gottman’s communication skills to promote couples’ marital satisfaction. Keywords: Attachment Styles, Gottman’s Communication Skills, Marital Satisfaction, Students 1. Background Marriage is one of the most profound and most crit- ical relational factors in human lives, which is accompa- nied with a close and intimate relationship between the couples. A married person expects a new life full of hap- piness and satisfaction; hence, the success of a marriage or marital satisfaction is more important than marriage itself (1). Marital satisfaction refers to individuals’ opti- mistic attitudes as such, the couple feels happy and satis- fied with their marriage and attachment (2, 3). The fixed characteristics of unhealthy marriages are scarce; how- ever, Gottman, cited in Hudson and Fraley (4), considered the first one to be reciprocal negative emotions arousing from the failure of resolution efforts. The second is the demand-withdrawal pattern. Women are more likely to be critical, while men are more likely indifferent. The third one is fewer positive behaviors than negative behaviors. The frequency of the latter scenario is about 0.8 in unsta- ble marriages. The fourth scenario refers to the existence and abundance of negative behaviors. Another factor affecting marital satisfaction is the anxious-insecure attachment style, which is characterized by extreme attachment. People with anxious-attachment styles constantly tend to communicate with others and only concentrate on ones’ needs. They are always anxious, and they consider a meaningless word or wrong reaction as a big problem or even a threat, which may destroy their relationship with their spouse. The other variable affecting marital satisfaction is avoidance-insecure attachment style. Instead of solving problems, being anxious, or contacting others, individu- als with this attachment style tend to avoid or escape from Copyright © 2021, Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits copy and redistribute the material just in noncommercial usages, provided the original work is properly cited.