关键词: 社会排斥, 配偶排斥, 离婚意愿, 愤怒, 婚姻满意度

Abstract: Ostracism refers to being ignored or excluded by individuals or groups. Prior studies have consistently shown that being ostracized by others thwarts the satisfaction of four fundamental needs: belonging, control, meaningful existence, and self-esteem. As a kind of “cold violence”, ostracism is also prevalence among spouses, with 67 percent of Americans admitting to having treated an intimate partner coldly and 75 percent saying they have been ostracized by a spouse. However, most research has focused on ostracism in laboratory using more temporary methods of ostracism, and paid little attention to chronic ostracism, especially ostracism in specific relationships or situations, for example, ostracism by spouses. Drawing from the temporal need-threat model on ostracism and the vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of marriage stability, this study examined the effect of mate ostracism on women’s divorce intention, and the serial mediating role of anger and marital satisfaction in this link. Our theoretical model was examined with 543 married women. Participants completed the revised Ostracism Experiences Scale, Trait Anger subscale of the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory, Marital Satisfaction subscale of the Marital Quality, and Divorce Intention Inventory. Data was collected and analyzed with PROCESS Model 6 of SPSS 21.0, and the bias-corrected percentile Bootstrap method was used to analyze the serial mediating role of anger and marital satisfaction between mate ostracism and women’s divorce intention. The results showed that: (1) Mate ostracism was positively correlated with anger (r = .34, p < .01) and divorce intention (r = .51, p < .01), and it was negatively correlated with marital satisfaction (r = -.61, p < .01). (2) Anger was negatively correlated with marital satisfaction (r = -.41, p < .01), and positively correlated with divorce intention (r = .37, p < .01). (3) Marital satisfaction was negatively correlated with divorce intention (r = -.68, p < .01). (4) Mediation analyses indicated that mate ostracism directly predicted women’s divorce intention; and also indirectly affected women’s divorce intention through anger, marital satisfaction and the chain mediating role of both anger and marital satisfaction. The present study not only examined the relationships between mate ostracism and women’s divorce intention, but also found the serial mediating role of anger and marital satisfaction in this link, which expanded the related areas and enriched the temporal need-threat model on ostracism and the vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of marriage stability. The results confirmed the mediating role of anger between the ostracism by spouses and the female's intention to divorce, which suggested that the role of anger and other emotions in the study of the mechanism of the influence of ostracism should be paid more attention. Furthermore, the results also confirmed the mediating role of marital satisfaction between mate ostracism and divorce intention, which conforms to the vulnerability-stress-adaptation model of marital stability. Compared with the direct path and the other two indirect paths, the path of ostracism from spouses -- marital satisfaction -- divorce intention has the highest effect value, which further proves that marital satisfaction is the most effective predictor to predict the individual's divorce intention. In addition, this chain mediating role confirms the influence of emotion on life satisfaction, which reflects the effect of emotional consistency. It expands both the model of temporal need-threat on ostracism and the mechanism between adaptation process and marital satisfaction in the vulnerability-stress-adaptation model, and provides possible scientific paths for how to reduce the impact of mate ostracism on divorce intention. Limitations of this study were also discussed.

Key words: ostracism, mate ostracism, divorce intention, anger, marital satisfaction