Individual and Psychological Characteristics of the Married Couple in a Codependent Relationship

Abstract

Introduction. Marital codependency is a common form of family relationships that has significant socio-psychological consequences due to the persistent influence on the personal characteristics of codependent persons. In the sources of scientific literature, the gender-individual-psychological features of marital codependency are insufficiently covered, which determined the relevance of the topic of this study. Aim. The purpose of the study is to determine the individual psychological characteristics of men and women in codependent marital relationships. Materials and methods. 39 men and 46 women who are in codependent family relationships took part in the study. The following psychodiagnostic techniques were used: The Codependency Self-Inventory Scale (CSIS); Scale for measuring the level of codependency (D. Spann and D. Fisher); R. M. Hirschfeld Interpersonal Dependency Inventory (IDI); Test-questionnaire for determining self-esteem (S. V. Kovalev); Diagnosis of emotional intelligence (N. Hall); Coping test (R. Lazarus and S. Folkman). Results. It was established that the formation of codependent marital relationships is influenced by self-esteem, which is low in both codependent men and codependent women. It was found that codependent men and women equally have a low level of emotional intelligence. Conclusions. Gender differences in the manifestations of interdependence have been revealed. The hypothesis that the individual psychological characteristics of men and women influence the formation of codependent relationships in married couples has been confirmed. It is shown that a low level of the ability to manage emotions and to self-motivate, in combination with greater empathy, makes the coping strategies of codependent women more adaptive, determining their adaptation to codependent relationships and their inability to actively resist, while men are more prone to confrontation and distancing. Prospective research. An interesting direction of prospective research may be to find out the gender characteristics of the conflict behavior of spouses in codependent relationships. Also, in the future, it is planned to investigate the ability of codependent persons to self-regulate behavior and to cognitively regulate emotions.