Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL SCIENCES, cilt.19, sa.2-3, ss.206-214, 2017 (ESCI)
The goal of this study is to develop a comprehensive scale for marital adjustment and to determine its psychometric properties. The Near East Marital Adjustment Scale (NEMAS), a Likert-type scale with 51 items, was formed based on the definition of factors related with marital adjustment and related literature. The NEMAS, Marital Satisfaction Scale (MSS), Dyadic Relations Scale (DRS), Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) and Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) were applied to 279 married people working at various workplaces in North Cyprus. Two items of the scale had low item-total correlations, two other had low factor load values and the other five items had factor loads on more than one factor; therefore, a total of nine items were excluded from the scale and the final form of the scale was formed from 42 items. In terms of the reliability, the NEMAS Cronbach's alpha coefficient was .94, item-total correlations were between .290 and .733, item analysis (t-t est) t-va lues were significant (p<0.001) and there was a strong correlation between the first half and final half of the scale (r=.893). Expert opinions were taken for content validity of the scale and, for criterion validity, highly significant relations were found between the scores of the participants from NEMAS and MSS, DRS, RDAS, MPSS, IRI. For construct validity, factor analysis by applying varimax orthogonal rotation showed four factors explaining 48. 36 percent of total variance. When the content of the items at each factor was taken into consideration, the first factor was named 'marital satisfaction', the second 'marital communication', the third 'empathy in marriage' and the fourth was 'relations with the families'. NEMAS has four factors, where each factor can be given separately and can also be used as one factor. It is shown that NEMAS is a reliable and valid instrument for married individuals. The scale can be used for evaluating marital adjustment of married individuals, to determine problem areas in the marriage, in studies about marital adjustment and for marital counselling services. Besides these, it meets a need in the field by evaluating communication and empathy in marriage.