Introduction and goal: The complexities of marital relationships have long been the focal point of psychological research, and recently various factors that play a role in creating marital conflicts have attracted the attention of researchers. Therefore, the current research was conducted with the aim of investigating the relationship between ego strength and defense mechanisms with marital conflicts of married employees of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth in Alborz province.
Research methodology: The current research is a part of applied research and in terms of the research method, it was a descriptive correlational study. The statistical population of the study was all married employees of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth of Alborz province in 1402, which included 240 people, and 200 of them were selected based on simple random sampling. The sample size in the present study was 150 people based on Cochran's formula, and 200 people were selected due to possible attrition in the distribution of the online questionnaire. The measurement tools in this research are Ego Markstrom et al.'s (1997) ability questionnaire; Andros et al.'s defensive styles questionnaire (1993); Kansas Marital Conflict Scale (1985). Statistical data analysis was done using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation coefficient and multivariate regression analysis) with the help of SPSS version 26 statistical software.Findings: The findings of the present study showed that ego strength and defense mechanisms can predict marital conflicts in married employees of the General Directorate of Sports and Youth in Alborz province. (p < 0.01).
Conclusion: Based on the research results, it can be said that ego strength and defense mechanisms play an important role in marital conflicts. Therefore, psychologists and counselors should prepare programs to help couples strengthen their ego and develop defense mechanisms through cognitive-behavioral techniques, mindfulness, and resilience training