Cultural Validation of the Couples Satisfaction Index – 32 among Sri Lankan Adults

Abstract

In the field of marital and relationship counselling, the assessment of relationship satisfaction has become a vital component in therapy. In the Sri Lankan context, lack of a culturally validated psychometric tool to assess relationship satisfaction was identified. Therefore, the present study aimed at culturally validating the Couples Satisfaction index- 32 (CSI – 32) among Sri Lankan adults. The Sinhala translated version of the CSI-32 was administered to a sample of 105 participants between the ages of 19 – 45 years who were in a committed relationship for more than six months. The types of relationships assessed by this instrument included married, engaged, or dating. A cross sectional survey was carried out among the participants and the standard procedures for cultural validation of a tool were followed which included translation, back translation, expert panel review and a pilot study was conducted before data collection. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out to measure the validity of the Sinhala version of the scale. The findings indicated that the CSI-32 was proved to be reliable (α = .97) and KMO value was at .93 in exploratory factor analysis. The reported findings suggest that this tool is valid to be used in the Sri Lankan population. Since this study was a preliminary step for cultural validation of CSI – 32 for Sri Lanka, a larger sample is suggested to be used in extending this study further. This validated tool can be used by professionals who are involved in marital and relationship counselling as a means of assessing the relationship satisfaction of the couple.