Aim and Background: According to the role of religion and religious in function and mental health of society and family members, and regarding the effect of family structure and values on religious orientation, this study aimed to investigate the mediating effect of marital values in the relationship between family structure and religious orientation. Methods and Materials: In this study, 357 marital individual (208 women and 149 men) selected from Babol City, Iran, through a multistage random cluster sampling method. Participants completed the Olson family structure, Allport religious orientation, and Delkhamoush marital value scales. Findings: There was a significant correlation between family cohesion with internal orientation (P < 0.01), external orientation (P < 0.01), embeddedness (P < 0.01), egalitarianism (P < 0.01), affective autonomy (P < 0.05), intellectual autonomy (P < 0.05), and hierarchy (P < 0.01). Moreover, there were a significant correlation between family flexibilitywith internal orientation (P < 0.05), affective autonomy (P < 0.05), intellectual autonomy (P < 0.05), and egalitarianism (P < 0.01), and the result of the path analysis and the model goodness of fit indices supported the meditational effect of marital values. Conclusions: It is concluded that family structure and marital value, as two psychological constructs, can play a significant role in creating religion orientation.

Keywords: Family members, Religious beliefs, Marriage patterns, Married persons

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