Development and Validation of an Indigenous Jealousy Scale for Polygamous Women

Abstract

The present study aimed to develop a culturally relevant and indigenous scale to assess the jealousy among polygamous women In study one, 16 semi-structured in-depth interviews with the age range of 18-60 years women (Polygamous, monogamous, experts) were conducted, and 65 items of the scale were empirically validated through content validation and Exploratory Factor Analysis on polygamous women (N = 200). The findings indicated that the Jealousy Scale for Polygamous Women has five factors having internally consistent (emotional, cognitive, behavioral, sexual, and possessive jealousy). Further, independent t-test was applied to seek the differences between first and second wives on jealousy and its subscales. Means scores revealed a significant differences between first and second wives as the first wives showed more emotional, cognitive, sexual, and overall jealousy, while lower possessive jealousy than the second wives. Study II was a conducted to determine the convergent validity with psychological distress while discriminant validity with psychological well-being of newly developed Jealousy scale for polygamous women. Both were subscales of the Mental Health Inventory (MHI, Veit, & Ware, 1983). The findings revealed the positive relationship between jealousy and its sub-scales with psychological-distress while the negative relationship with psychological well-being among polygamous women. Results indicate Jealousy Scale for Polygamous Women is a valid, reliable, and promising tool in the indigenous setting.