Reliability and Validity of the Persian versions of the ENRICH Marital Satisfaction (Brief version) and Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scales

Evaluation of marital satisfaction using valid and reliable tools is crucial in Iran، regarding the increasing rate of divorce. In Western countries، the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) and ENRICH Marital Satisfaction Scale (EMS) showed acceptable reliability and validity in determining how satisfied couples were in their marital relationship. The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the two questionnaires. This study was done on 100 subjects referred to the pre-divorce counseling centers and 200 participants from the general population of Rafsanjan City. The EMS (as a brief version of ENRICH) containing 10 satisfaction questions and KMSS containing three items were evaluated. Cronbakh’s alpha and item-scale correlations were calculated in order to assess the reliability of the tools. For testing construct validity three methods were used: convergent validity، known group comparison and factorial validity. The Cronbach’s alpha of EMS and KMSS were 0. 74 and 0. 98، respectively. EMS consisted of two factors and KMSS had one factor. Satisfaction score obtained by both questionnaires were lower in the divorce group than the general population (P<0/001). Correlation coefficients between EMS and KMSS، and ENRICH were 0. 82 and 0. 32، respectively. The Persian version of the KMSS and EMS questionnaires showed acceptable reliability and validity.