PSYCHOMETRIC PROPERTIES OF LOCK-WALLACE SHORT MARITAL ADJUSTMENT SCALE (LWSMAS) FOR BANGLADESHI COUPLES

Abstract

The present study aimed to explore psychometric properties of the Lock-
Wallace Short Marital Adjustment Scale to use in the context of Bangladesh. The
original scale consisted of 15 items and higher scores on the scale indicate greater
marital satisfaction. After attaining agreement on the appropriateness of
translated items by judges, item analysis was done using 318 clinical and nonclinical
samples. The Cronbach’s Alpha and split-half reliability of the adapted
scale was 0.92 and 0.95, respectively. The test-retest correlation was also found to
be significant (r = 0.95, α = 0.01). Construct validity was measured by computing
discriminant validity (F = 38.88, α < 0.001) between the clinical and non-clinical
sample. Convergent validity was also ensured by measuring correlation(r = 0.72,
α = 0.01) between Lock-Wallace scale and Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale. It is
suggested that the scale be used in Bangladeshi context considering that the item
may incur low score for couples.