The marital status inventory: Development of a measure of dissolution potential

Weiss, Robert; Cerreto, Mary C.

doi:10.1080/01926188008250358

Cited by 188 publications

(125 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…Relationship commitment was measured with the Marital Status Inventory (Weiss & Cerreto, 1980), a 14-item scale of divorce potential that assesses thoughts, plans, and actions concerned with separation or divorce. Scores can range from 0 to 14, with higher scores indicating that the partners have taken more steps toward relationship dissolution.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marital interactions of drug-abusing patients and their partners: Comparisons with distressed couples and relationship to drug-using behavior.

Fals‐Stewart¹,

Birchler²

1998

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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Couples with a drug-abusing husband (n = 17) and non-substance-abusing, distressed couples (n = 17) completed several self-report measures of relationship adjustment and participated in videotaped marital conflict-resolution discussions that were coded with the Clinician Rating of Adult Communication (CRAC). Although no differences were found between the couple types on the self-report inventories, drug-abusing couples had higher scores (indicating more frequent use of dysfunctional communication behaviors) on 3 of the 5 CRAC subscales (i.e., Abusiveness, Problem-Solving Skills, and Attribution of Blame) and a higher CRAC total score (a global measure of communication skill) than distressed couples. In addition, the CRAC total score for drug-abusing couples was negatively related to husbands' percentage of days abstinent during the year before entering substance abuse treatment.Although several controlled investigations have examined the marital relationships of alcoholic couples (for a review, see McCrady & Epstein, 1995), nearly all of the family studies of individuals who primarily abuse psychoactive substances other than alcohol have largely ignored the spousal system and have instead focused primarily on the family of origin (e.g

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Marital interactions of drug-abusing patients and their partners: Comparisons with distressed couples and relationship to drug-using behavior.

Fals‐Stewart¹,

Birchler²

1998

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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“…The MSI (Weiss & Cerreto, 1980) is a 14-item scale used to assess behavioral steps taken toward divorce using a true/false response scale. The present study made use of the first 5 items of the scale (given their higher endorsement rates) as potential satisfaction items.…”

Section: Measures Of Relationship Satisfaction and Qualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the ruler with item response theory: Increasing precision of measurement for relationship satisfaction with the Couples Satisfaction Index.

Funk

Rogge

2007

Journal of Family Psychology

1,456

1,478

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The present study took a critical look at a central construct in couples research: relationship satisfaction. Eight well-validated self-report measures of relationship satisfaction, including the Marital Adjustment Test (MAT; H. J. Locke & K. M. Wallace, 1959), the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS; G. B. Spanier, 1976), and an additional 75 potential satisfaction items, were given to 5,315 online participants. Using item response theory, the authors demonstrated that the MAT and DAS provided relatively poor levels of precision in assessing satisfaction, particularly given the length of those scales. Principal-components analysis and item response theory applied to the larger item pool were used to develop the Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI) scales. Compared with the MAS and the DAS, the CSI scales were shown to have higher precision of measurement (less noise) and correspondingly greater power for detecting differences in levels of satisfaction. The CSI scales demonstrated strong convergent validity with other measures of satisfaction and excellent construct validity with anchor scales from the nomological net surrounding satisfaction, suggesting that they assess the same theoretical construct as do prior scales. Implications for research are discussed.

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“…To describe the sample in terms of relationship functioning, we had participants complete the DAS (Spanier, 1976), which is a frequently used 32-item self-report inventory yielding a global marital satisfaction score (wording was modified for premarital assessment as described by Markman, 1981). Participants also completed a modified version of the Marital Status Inventory (MSI; Weiss & Cerreto, 1980). The MSI is a 14-item Gutmann rating scale assessing the steps taken toward divorce or separation (Weiss & Cerreto, 1980).…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Participants also completed a modified version of the Marital Status Inventory (MSI; Weiss & Cerreto, 1980). The MSI is a 14-item Gutmann rating scale assessing the steps taken toward divorce or separation (Weiss & Cerreto, 1980). In the modification, 4 items referring specifically to marital dissolution were eliminated and some items were reworded to make it appropriate for premarital assessment of dissolution potential.…”

Section: Participantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental divorce and premarital couple communication.

Sanders¹,

Halford²,

Behrens³

1999

Journal of Family Psychology

101

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On the basis of a social learning analysis, it was hypothesized that a history of parental divorce would predispose partners to difficulties in managing conflict. Ninetythree engaged couples were videotaped while they discussed two areas of conflict. Each partner then completed a video-mediated recall procedure, an assessment of cognition during the interactions, which was then coded and analyzed. As predicted, couples in which the woman's parents had divorced showed more negative communication and cognitions during conflict discussions than did couples in which neither partner's parents had divorced. Contrary to predictions, couples in which the man's parents had divorced did not differ from couples in which neither partner's parents had divorced. The current research shows that, at least for women, a history of parental divorce is associated with more negative couple communication before marriage.

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The marital status inventory: Development of a measure of dissolution potential

Cited by 188 publications

References 3 publications

Marital interactions of drug-abusing patients and their partners: Comparisons with distressed couples and relationship to drug-using behavior.

Marital interactions of drug-abusing patients and their partners: Comparisons with distressed couples and relationship to drug-using behavior.

Testing the ruler with item response theory: Increasing precision of measurement for relationship satisfaction with the Couples Satisfaction Index.

Parental divorce and premarital couple communication.

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