Assessing Arabic couples: An evidence-based approach
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abstract
Assessing couple relationships across diverse languages and cultures has important implications for both clinical intervention and prevention. However, empirically validated measures of relationship functioning for couples from non-Western cultures have generally been lacking. The current study examined the psychometric properties and measurement invariance of an Arabic translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory - Revised (MSI-R), a 150-item, 13-scale measure of couple relationship functioning, and a brief 10-item screening scale (MSI-B) derived from this measure. Data were collected from 84 community and 32 clinic Middle Eastern couples living in Qatar. The Arabic MSI-R demonstrated moderate-to-strong internal consistency, discriminative validity, and factorial invariance across Qatari and US standardization samples. Similarly, findings regarding the 10-item Arabic MSI-B supported its internal consistency and discriminative validity. Overall, psychometric characteristics for both the full-length MSI-R and the MSI-B screener suggest the clinical utility of these measures for identifying Arabic-speaking couples for whom secondary prevention or intervention protocols may be appropriate. 2011 Taylor & Francis.
