Reliability and validity of the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) in infertile people

Abstract

Background and objective: Infertility is a global public health issue and may adversely influence marital quality. The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) is a quick, easy to administer and score, 3-item scale measuring marital quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the KMSS in Iranian infertile people. Materials and methods: The research sample consist of 254 infertile people drawn from a referral fertility clinic in Tehran, Iran from February to May 2017. The participants were administered the KMSS, Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-4), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and a demographic questionnaire. Tests of data quality included descriptive statistics of the data, internal reliability consistency, inter-item correlations, corrected item total correlations, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and convergent validity. Results: The mean total KMSS score was 17.73 ± 3.02. The Cronbach's alpha coefficient for KMSS was 0.901. All corrected item-total correlations and inter-item correlations were in acceptable range. Based on CFA result, the one-factor model was fully saturated, and all three factor loadings were significant and in the expected direction. The KMSS significantly correlated with CSI-4, HADS-anxiety and HADS-depression, indicating an acceptable convergent validity. Conclusion: In summary, the present study provides further evidence that the KMSS is psychometrically sound and therefore it can be recommended for further use by researchers interested in the context of marital quality.