The Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) in infertile patients: A reliability and validity study

Abstract

Background and objective: Infertility is a global public health concern and affects marital satisfaction. The Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) is a short 7-item self-report inventory designed to measure relationship satisfaction. The objective of this study was to examine the psychometric properties of the RAS in Iranian infertile people. Methods: The study sample consist of 254 infertile peoples drawn from a referral infertility treatment center in Tehran, Iran between February and May 2017. A battery of measures was used including the RAS, Couples Satisfaction Index (CSI-4), Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and a demographic/clinical information. 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 RAS score was 29.46 ± 4.98. The internal consistency of the RAS was high (Cronbach's alpha = 0.828). All inter-item correlations and item-total correlations were in acceptable range. The CFA results provided support for the unidimensionality of the scale (χ2/df = 2.39; CFI = 0.98; RMSEA = 0.074 and SRMR = 0.038). The RAS score was significantly correlated with CSI-4, KMSS, HADS-anxiety and HADS-depression, demonstrating convergent validity. Among demographic/clinical variables, only infertility duration was significantly correlated with RAS scores. Conclusion: The RAS appear valid and reliable for assessing global relationship satisfaction among people experiencing infertility problem in Iran. It can also be used as brief and easy to administer inventory for assessment of relationship satisfaction in large sample survey research.