The Psychometric Properties of the Marriage Assessment and Marital Counseling Questionnaire among Iranian Couples

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D. Student in Counseling, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran. (Corresponding Author)

2 Professor, Department of Counseling, Faculty of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.

Abstract

The present research was conducted using factor analysis to investigate the psychometric properties of the marriage assessment and marital counseling questionnaire among Muslim societies, which has been standardized in Qatar. The population included married men and women in the cities of Zanjan and Qazvin in 2023, and 404 people were selected by the convenience sampling as the sample. The data were collected using the marriage assessment and marital counseling questionnaire, the ENRICH marital satisfaction scale, and the dyadic adjustment scale. In the data description section, frequency distribution tables, mean, and standard deviation were calculated and drawn, and in the inferential statistics section, SPSS was used for exploratory analysis, and LISREL was used in the confirmatory section. The content validity of the questionnaire was confirmed by six experts in the field of psychometrics and counseling. According to the results, the criterion validity of the test (correlation with the ENRICH marital satisfaction scale and the dyadic adjustment scale) was 0.73 and 0.79, respectively, and was significant (P<0.001). The internal consistency coefficients using Cronbach's alpha for the entire questionnaire were 0.86. The results of the item-scale correlation coefficients indicated that this correlation was higher than minimum (0.20) for all items and the range of item-scale correlation was between 0.37 and 0.80. Examining the internal validity of the questionnaire using confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis gave four factors, one less than the original version. Accordingly, its title was changed into the marriage assessment and marital counseling questionnaire among Iranian couples. Therefore, this questionnaire has the necessary capabilities to assess the marriage of Iranian couples and families and can be used for consulting and research purposes.

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Main Subjects


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