Abstract
Since the inception of the economic reform, marital relationship in urban China has undergone dramatic transformations. Though
the burgeoning body of scholarly research has demonstrated that marital quality has increasingly become an important aspect
of family life among married persons in urban China, both the conceptualization and measurement of marital quality remain
underdeveloped. The purpose of this pilot study is to develop and validate a comprehensive and culturally appropriate marital
quality scale, namely the Chinese Marital Quality Scale (CMQS). Results from the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted
on a sample of 387 married persons from Beijing indicate that the CMQS can be conceptualized as a two-factorial and multidimensional
construct, encompassing marital happiness, marital interaction, marital disagreement, marital problem, and marital instability.
Additional statistical analyses also indicate that the CMQS has exhibited satisfactory reliability and concurrent validity.
It is thus concluded that the CMQS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure marital quality in contemporary Beijing and
possibly in other Chinese cities.
the burgeoning body of scholarly research has demonstrated that marital quality has increasingly become an important aspect
of family life among married persons in urban China, both the conceptualization and measurement of marital quality remain
underdeveloped. The purpose of this pilot study is to develop and validate a comprehensive and culturally appropriate marital
quality scale, namely the Chinese Marital Quality Scale (CMQS). Results from the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted
on a sample of 387 married persons from Beijing indicate that the CMQS can be conceptualized as a two-factorial and multidimensional
construct, encompassing marital happiness, marital interaction, marital disagreement, marital problem, and marital instability.
Additional statistical analyses also indicate that the CMQS has exhibited satisfactory reliability and concurrent validity.
It is thus concluded that the CMQS is a reliable and valid instrument to measure marital quality in contemporary Beijing and
possibly in other Chinese cities.
- Content Type Journal Article
- Pages 1-16
- DOI 10.1007/s11205-012-0089-6
- Authors
- Huiping Zhang, Department of Social Work, The School of Sociology and Population Studies, Renmin University of China, No. 59, Zhongguancun Street, Haidian District, Beijing, People’s Republic of China
- Xiaohe Xu, Department of Sociology, University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX 78249-0655, USA
- Sandra K. M. Tsang, Department of Social Work and Social Administration, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong
- Journal Social Indicators Research
- Online ISSN 1573-0921
- Print ISSN 0303-8300