RELIGIOUS ORIENTATION AND RELATIONSHIP COMMITMENT: A MEDIATING ROLE OF MORAL INTELLIGENCE AMONG MARRIED COUPLES

Abstract

This study aims to investigate religious orientation and relationship commitment: a mediating role of moral intelligence among married couples. Mixed methods research design was employed and a sample (N= 200) married couples aged 25-45 years old with marriage duration of 2-10 years were selected through purposive sampling. Religious orientation questionnaire (ROS) was employed to assess religious orientation, Indigenous Moral Intelligence Scale was employed to assess moral intelligence. The Investment Model Scale (IMS) was employed to measure relationship commitment. It was hypothesized that religious orientation has a significant positive relationship with moral intelligence and relationship commitment among married couples, moral intelligence has a significant positive relationship with relationship commitment among married couples and moral intelligence mediates the relationship between religious orientation and relationship commitment among married couples. Inferential statistics like regression analysis, were performed to explore the predictive influence of moral intelligence on the connection between religious orientation and relationship commitment. The t-tests were utilized to examine possible differences related to demographic factor like gender. Mediation analysis (Hayes PROCESS Macro) was performed to find out the mediation role of moral intelligence between religious orientation and relationship commitment. Results indicated that religious orientation has a significant positive relationship with moral intelligence and relationship commitment, and moral intelligence has a significant positive relationship with relationship commitment among married couples. Results indicated that moral intelligence mediates the relationship between religious orientation and relationship commitment among married couples.