Marital Conventionalization as a Measure of Marital Satisfaction: A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Abstract

It has been suggested that self-report measures of marital satisfaction are contaminated by a social desirability bias, which V. H. Edmonds (1967) termed marital conventionalization. Subsequent research showed that marital satisfaction measures were strongly correlated with marital conventionalization but not with social desirability scales. Because these measures tend to be so strongly correlated, this study examined whether marital satisfaction and conventionalization are best seen as two separate constructs or as a single construct. These measures were found to have one underlying factor based on confirmatory factor analyses with a sample of 2,109 individuals. Further analysis suggested that the relationship between marital satisfaction and conventionalization scales differs depending on the level of marital satisfaction.