Predictor models of intimate partnership satisfaction: Attachment, the capacity to mentalize and narcissism

The aim of this study is to analyse whether attachment, mentalization and narcissism contribute to the prediction of intimate partnership satisfaction. The study included 222 respondents aged 18 to 50, all childless, who were in an intimate partnership or had been married from at least one year to ten years at most. The respondents filled out online questionnaires, including: the Serbian version of the Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (SM-ECR-R) questionnaire used for assessing attachment; the Mentalization Scale (MentS); the Narcissistic Personality Inventory NPI40 used for assessing the level of narcissism and the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) aimed at assessing intimate partnership satisfaction. The results indicate that higher levels of anxiety, avoidance, mentalization of others and narcissism predict lower intimate partnership satisfaction. Attachment, which developmentally precedes mentalization and narcissism, has the most significant independent effect on the prediction of satisfaction. The greatest predictive power was achieved by the predictive model which, at the same time, includes anxiety, avoidance and the mentalization of others. The conclusion of the study is that attachment, the mentalization of others and narcissism predict intimate partnership satisfaction.