Abstract
BackgroundInfertility can have a powerful impact on marital quality. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) is a widely used measure of marital quality. This scale has not been validated in infertile patients. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the RDAS in a sample of infertile patients.MethodsThe sample of this methodological study consisted of 254 infertile patients referring to a referral infertility clinic in Tehran, Iran. A battery of questionnaires was administered to the participants, including a demographic/fertility questionnaire, the RDAS, the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS), the Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS), the Couples Satisfaction Index- 4 Item (CSI-4), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Perceived Stress Scale-4 Item (PSS-4). Internal consistency of the scale was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha, construct validity was investigated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and convergent validity was examined by correlating the RDAS with RAS, KMSS, CSI-4, HADS, and PSS-4 instruments.ResultsThe mean total RDAS score was 49.26 ± 9.34, and 100 patients (39.4%) had marital distress based on the cut-off value of < 48. The second-order three-factor model of the RDAS exhibited an excellent fit to the data, as indicated by χ2/df = 2.26; CFI = 0.96; GFI = 0.91; NFI = 0.93; IFI = 0.96; RMSEA = 0.071 and SRMR = 0.050. The RDAS and its subscales revealed satisfactory internal consistency that ranged from 0.664 to 0.847. Convergent validity was confirmed by strong correlations between RDAS scores and scores on the RAS, KMSS, and CSI-4. These correlations also tended to be larger than correlations with measures of HADS-anxiety, HADS-depression, and PSS-4. Among demographic/fertility variables, only infertility duration was found to be correlated to the RDAS.ConclusionThe RDAS is a reliable and valid inventory for measuring marital quality in infertile patients. Further validation studies are needed to generalize the underlying structure of the scale in various populations.
Highlights
The particular evaluation of one’s relationship is generally referred to as relationship satisfaction, which is a crucial aspect of life satisfaction [1, 2]
Participants and study design In this methodological study, infertile patients referring to infertility treatment clinic of Royan Institute, Tehran, Iran were invited to participate in the research project
55.5% were female, 36.2% were universityeducated, 35.8% had male factor cause of infertility, 49.6% had a failure in previous infertility treatments
Summary
The particular evaluation of one’s relationship is generally referred to as relationship satisfaction, which is a crucial aspect of life satisfaction [1, 2]. Infertility is one of the main areas where marriage quality is heavily impacted. The assessment of marital satisfaction among the infertile patient population is challenging regarding multiple psychological and mental health issues like depression, stress, anxiousness, sexual problems, low standard of living, and poorer marital adjustment [15,16,17,18]. Previous surveys have shown that infertility impacts mental well-being, marriage relationships, sexual interactions, and life quality [17]. The Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (RDAS) is a widely used measure of marital quality. This scale has not been validated in infertile patients. This study aimed to evaluate the reliability and validity of the RDAS in a sample of infertile patients
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