RESUMEN
Introduction: Marital conflict is one of the common problems in couple relationship that has been the interest of counselors and family therapists since its devastating effects. This study has been done to examine the role of defensive style and emotional schemas in marital conflicts
Methods: This study was a correlational one. The population consisted of parents of children kept in kindergarten in the city of Ardabil in the years of 92-93. A total of 240 parents [120 couples] were selected in a random sampling and answered the questionnaires about marital conflict [Sanaei and Barati, 1375], defensive styles [Andrews, shinee, and Bowen, 1993] and emotional schemas [Leahy, 2002]. Data were analyzed using the Pearson correlation coefficient and step to step regression
Results: The results showed that the relationship of the marital conflict variables and mature and immature defensive styles and emotional schemas are statistically significant. There was just, neurotic defensive style variables of other variables which was not statistically significant. Also, the results showed that immature defensive style has greatest role in increasing marital conflict
Conclusion: According to our findings, there is a relation between defensive style and emotional schema with marital conflict and they predict it significantly. Therefore, it is necessary to examine insufficient defensive style and emotional schema to reduce marital conflict; thus, strategies are recommended to improve it