Abstract
This study assessed the validity and clinical utility of a new test, the Couple's Communicative Evaluation Scale. With 24 couples from a variety of resources, e.g., churches, newspaper, and colleges, a discriminant analysis using the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, indicated that satisfied couples could be discriminated from dissatisfied couples with 91–96% accuracy. Significant differences on the scale were found for means between 7 distressed and 16 nondistressed couples using the satisfaction/dissatisfaction cutoff score of 200 on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and significant differences on the individual scales were found for means between 16 distressed and 31 nondistressed individuals using the satisfaction/dissatisfaction cutoff score of 100 on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Demographic variables, e.g., age, marriage length, were statistically significant. Scale scores were highly correlated with those on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale, indicating good validity. Using all 400 items, an alpha of .99 indicated good internal consistency for the verbal, nonverbal, and listening communication scores.