Empirical studies in different cultures consistently confirm that married persons as well as those in cohabitation are less lonely than single, divorced and widowed persons (de Jong Gierveld, 1987; Jones, Hebb, 2003). Since Weiss in his interactionistic model of loneliness has emphasized that emotional and social loneliness emerge when attachment, social integration, reassurance of worth and others provisions are not met. So it is wise to assume that level and type of loneliness do not depend only on marriage status, but on quality of marriage which could enable (or not) achievement of the above mentioned provisions. Most empirical data confirming these assumptions were collected mainly in clinical studies of depressed persons, mostly female participants. In these studies D. Jack (1991) identified a new construct, named self-silencing, which refers to cognitive schemes that create and maintain close relationships in a way that women should remain passive and repress their feelings and thoughts. Therefore, it was hypothesized that self-silencing could have significant role in relation of marriage quality and loneliness among married women. This study was carried out on 185 married female participants. The main aim was to define the nature of relations of marriage quality dimensions (sexual intimacy, conflict, attachment, communication, perception of justice and satisfaction with marriage) with social and emotional loneliness. Furthermore, the second aim of this study was to examine the role of self-silencing in relation to certain dimensions of marriage quality and loneliness. In this study, valid and reliable measures were used for the assessment of loneliness, perception of marriage quality and self-silencing. Those measures were: Perception Of Marriage Quality Questionnaire, Social and Emotional Loneliness Scale and Self-Silencing Scale. Results of regression analysis show the existence of moderate relations between dimensions of marriage quality, emotional and social loneliness and self-silencing. Significant predictors for romantic (emotional) loneliness are satisfaction with marriage and attachment, for family (emotional) loneliness are attachment and sexual intimacy, while for social loneliness significant predictors are sexual intimacy and conflict. The above mentioned predictors significantly explain more variance for emotional loneliness as a criterion variable than for social loneliness. Results also indicate that self-silencing is a partial mediator in relations of dimensions of marriage quality and loneliness.

social and emotional loneliness, attachment, sexual intimacy, conflicts, satisfaction with marriage, perception of justice, self-silencing