The Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire for Older Persons: Factor Structure in a French Sample

Abstract

The factor structure of the Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire for Older Persons (Haynes et al., 1992) for a sample of elderly French persons was examined. For the sample as a whole, as well as for women and men separately, the fit between the French data and the structure postulated by Haynes et al. was satisfactory. The meaning of the Communication / Companionship factor was the same in France as in the U.S. It proved to be a broad factor that expresses satisfaction in a wide variety of marital areas. The meaning of the Sex / A ffection factor was slightly different in the French and U.S. samples. The proper name for this factor in the French sample would be Sex. Finally, the same pattern of correlation coefficients found in the U.S. sample between the two factors and a number of additional items was found for the French. In particular, Communication / Companionship scores were strongly linked to overall marital satisfaction, and Sex / A ffection scores were only moderately correlated with overall marital satisfaction.

Factor Structure and Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Marital Satisfaction Questionnaire for Older Persons

“…These findings corroborate previous studies (Fouquereau & Baudoin, 2002;Haynes et al, 1992) where Cronbach's alpha coefficients of .96 and .95, respectively, were obtained with U.S. and French elderly persons.…”

“…However, this result is interpretable in the context of the scientific literature (see, for example, Bowman, 1990;Caughlin, Huston, & Houts, 2000), which highlights the relation between the In the Spanish version, we observed that the items assessing the couple's communication loaded on a separate factor, distinct from the Compatibility/Affective Quality factor, which was thus labeled simply "Communication." This differed slightly from the findings by both Haynes et al (1992) and Fouquereau and Baudoin (2002), in the sense that in both studies (conducted in the United States and France, respectively) the items that measure communication loaded on the same factor as those that measure companionship and compatibility, in the scale they thus named Communication/Companionship. It should be further explored whether this finding may relate to cultural differences.…”

“…Haynes et al had decided to include it in the Sex/Affection factor. In the Haynes et al study, the item related to "spouse's reaction to shared feelings" loaded on the Communication/Companionship factor, the same as in the French version by Fouquereau and Baudoin (2002). On the contrary, in Puerto Rico the item had identical loadings on the Compatibility/Affective Quality and Communication factors.…”

“…We conducted an exploratory factor analysis and assessed the internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha coefficient. In addition, we compare the results with the psychometric properties reported for U.S. (Haynes et al, 1992) and French samples (Fouquereau & Baudoin, 2002).…”

“…More recently, Fouquereau and Baudoin (2002) translated and adapted the instrument to French. These authors evaluated the factor structure of the MSQFOP in a sample of French elderly people.…”