Characteristics of the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale in a Sample of 79 Married Couples

Abstract

Data from 79 couples in a midwestern sample were analyzed to evaluate the internal consistency reliability and validity of the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale. Cronbach alphas for the scale were 0.89 and 0.93 for husbands and wives, respectively, while the scale was somewhat less well correlated with an abbreviated version of the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale than with an abbreviated version of Edmonds' Marital Conventionalization Scale. The distribution of responses to the scale departed significantly from normality in terms of skewness and kurtosis, although the deviations were reduced among subjects scoring low on marital social desirability. The scale offers promise for use in clinical evaluation and survey research where a brief but reliable measure of marital satisfaction is required.