The Comprehensive Marital Satisfaction Scale (CMSS)
The CMSS is offered here primarily for research use by students. In the event it is employed in clinical settings or for any other purpose, it is strongly advisable that findings based on the present instrument be checked against additional data from alternative tests and interview materials.
Reliability and Validity of the CMSS
Blum and Mehrabian (1999) reported a large-scale study bearing on the Comprehensive Marital Satisfaction Scale (CMSS) and its reliability and validity.
The Comprehensive Marital Satisfaction Scale (CMSS) has a highly satisfactory internal consistency (reliability) coefficient of .94 and a satisfactory test-retest reliability coefficient of .83 over a six week interval (Blum and Mehrabian, 1999, p. 106).
The CMSS has content validity because items of the scale constitute clear descriptions of the many varied aspects of satisfaction in a marital situation. Additionally, the CMSS has construct validity because the most fundamental hypotheses bearing on the relation of marital satisfaction to personality and temperament variables (proposed by Blum and Mehrabian, 1999, on the basis of their review of the relevant literature) were supported when the CMSS was used as the measure of marital satisfaction in their study.
References:
Blum, J.S., & Mehrabian, A. (1999). Personality and temperament correlates of marital satisfaction. Journal of Personality, 67, 93-125.
Polish Translation of the CMSS:
A Polish translation of the CMSS by Roman Cieslak [rocie@swps.edu.pl] and Marianna Palider [panlider@interia.pl] is available and can be obtained either from the translators or from Albert Mehrabian.