The purpose of this study was to develop scales for the measurement of healthiness of marriage relationships for middle-aged Korean couples and test their validity. The subjects were middle-aged Korean couples between 40 and 60 years of age.
The following were the topics discussed in this study: First, what are the factors and questions applied to the scales for the measurement of healthiness of marriage relationships for middle-aged Korean couples? Second, what are the construct validity and concurrent validity of the scales? Third, what is the reliability of the test of scales? Fourth, are the latent means of both gender groups equal? Fifth, what are the gender standards of married middle-aged men and women? This study took the following seven steps to address these topics:
The first step was to analyze preceded studies, literature, and interviews, establish the seven concepts of construction, and derive 747 questions from the previous scales related to married couples to sort out 104 preliminary questions considering redundancy, reverse coding, relativity to the concepts of healthy couples, and relativity to middle age.
The second step processed the preliminary questions through four steps to assess validity and extracted 59 questions.
The third step performed the survey using the 59 questions and used the results of survey for exploratory factor analysis. In result, there were two factors and a total of 20 questions, 10 questions for each factor. Factor 1 was named "the Equality and Values" and Factor 2 was named "the Communication and Intimacy".
The fourth step performed confirmatory factor analysis on the factor structure of the scales for the measurement of healthiness of marriage relationships for middle-aged Korean couples and concluded that the factor structure was valid.
The fifth step tested convergent validity, concurrent validity, and construct validity to examine relativity with other scales to verify the validity of the scales for the measurement of healthiness of marriage relationships for middle-aged Korean couples, and acquired significant results for all.
The sixth step performed the analysis of latent means to examine the difference between the group of husbands and the group of wives and concluded that there is no difference.
The final step found the percentage and standard scores to signify the scores of the scales.
The scales for the measurement of healthiness of marriage relationships for middle-aged Korean couples from this study can be used as follows: First, these scales measure the factors related to positive interaction in couple relationship and successful marriage and could be used to develop various theories related to the healthiness of couple relationship. Second, they could be used for couple programs, couple training, and couple therapy to validate their effectiveness. Third, they can be applied to the healthiness of marriage of senior couples as they discuss the healthiness of marriage of middle-aged couples. The life in middle age should be discussed for mental and physical stability in senior years.