Cross-Cultural Validation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised: A confirmatory factor analytic study

Abstract

This study examined issues of measurement equivalence in a cross-national study using the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (MSI-R). Overall findings supported cross-cultural similarities across the Spain, Germany, Korea, and the U.S. standardization samples. The Spanish, German, and Korean translations of the MSI-R demonstrated moderate to strong internal consistency, inter-scale correlations, and discriminative validity overall. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed configural and metric invariance across the original measure and the German, Spanish, and Korean translations. Mean profile comparisons between the current German, Spanish, and Korean samples and the original standardization sample revealed significant differences on several scales. Test characteristic similarities between the U.S. and the Spanish, German, and Korean clinical samples suggest the clinical utility of the MSI-R for identifying couples for secondary prevention or intervention protocols, and treatment planning in Spain, Germany, and Korea. Implications for cross-national clinical and research applications of the MSI-R are discussed.