Article Version of Record

Construction and Validation of the Marital Justice Scale: Adaptation of Social Justice Theory in Marriage

Author(s) / Creator(s)

Ghaffari, Majid
Fatehizade, Maryam
Ahmadi, Seyed Ahmad
Ghasemi, Vahid
Baghban, Iran

Abstract / Description

The main purpose of this study was to construct and validate a scale for measuring marital justice. A sample of three hundred and four voluntary and unpaid married participants (194 females, 110 males), aged between 20 and 35 years old (29.01 ± 4.44 years), were selected randomly through multi-stage sampling in Isfahan, Iran; the participants included in this sample had preschool child/children, were all in the first decade of marriage, and had at least eight grades of education. All participants were asked to complete the Marital Justice Scale (MJS), the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (R-DAS; Busby, Christensen, Crane, & Larson, 1995), and the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ; Sanai Zaker, 2000). The exploratory factor analysis extracted two factors labelled ‘Procedural/interactional justice’ (twelve items) and ‘Distributive justice’ (eight items) which accounted for 66.70% of the total variance. The convergent and discriminant validity of the 20-item MJS were supported by an expected pattern of correlations between the scale and the measures of marital quality and marital conflict. All correlation coefficients between the mean scores of the MJS and the scores of the RDAS and the MCQ were statistically significant. The obtained internal consistency was markedly high (Cronbach’s α = .97). The test-retest reliability of the MJS was .87. The results suggest that the MJS is a reliable and valid measure; however, further studies should be carried out in other countries, based on different age groups and socio-economic levels, various developmental stages of family life cycles, diverse cultures and sub-cultures, and according to gender difference so as to validate the MJS.

Keyword(s)

Marital Justice Scale (MJS) validity reliability

Persistent Identifier

Date of first publication

2013-11-29

Journal title

Europe's Journal of Psychology

Volume

9

Issue

4

Page numbers

731–743

Publisher

PsychOpen GOLD

Publication status

publishedVersion

Review status

peerReviewed

Is version of

Citation

Ghaffari, M., Fatehizade, M., Ahmadi, S. A., Ghasemi, V., & Baghban, I. (2013). Construction and Validation of the Marital Justice Scale: Adaptation of Social Justice Theory in Marriage. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9(4), 731–743. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v9i4.632
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ghaffari, Majid
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Fatehizade, Maryam
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ahmadi, Seyed Ahmad
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Ghasemi, Vahid
  • Author(s) / Creator(s)
    Baghban, Iran
  • PsychArchives acquisition timestamp
    2018-11-21T10:01:19Z
  • Made available on
    2018-11-21T10:01:19Z
  • Date of first publication
    2013-11-29
  • Abstract / Description
    The main purpose of this study was to construct and validate a scale for measuring marital justice. A sample of three hundred and four voluntary and unpaid married participants (194 females, 110 males), aged between 20 and 35 years old (29.01 ± 4.44 years), were selected randomly through multi-stage sampling in Isfahan, Iran; the participants included in this sample had preschool child/children, were all in the first decade of marriage, and had at least eight grades of education. All participants were asked to complete the Marital Justice Scale (MJS), the Revised Dyadic Adjustment Scale (R-DAS; Busby, Christensen, Crane, & Larson, 1995), and the Marital Conflict Questionnaire (MCQ; Sanai Zaker, 2000). The exploratory factor analysis extracted two factors labelled ‘Procedural/interactional justice’ (twelve items) and ‘Distributive justice’ (eight items) which accounted for 66.70% of the total variance. The convergent and discriminant validity of the 20-item MJS were supported by an expected pattern of correlations between the scale and the measures of marital quality and marital conflict. All correlation coefficients between the mean scores of the MJS and the scores of the RDAS and the MCQ were statistically significant. The obtained internal consistency was markedly high (Cronbach’s α = .97). The test-retest reliability of the MJS was .87. The results suggest that the MJS is a reliable and valid measure; however, further studies should be carried out in other countries, based on different age groups and socio-economic levels, various developmental stages of family life cycles, diverse cultures and sub-cultures, and according to gender difference so as to validate the MJS.
    en_US
  • Publication status
    publishedVersion
  • Review status
    peerReviewed
  • Citation
    Ghaffari, M., Fatehizade, M., Ahmadi, S. A., Ghasemi, V., & Baghban, I. (2013). Construction and Validation of the Marital Justice Scale: Adaptation of Social Justice Theory in Marriage. Europe's Journal of Psychology, 9(4), 731–743. https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v9i4.632
  • ISSN
    1841-0413
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12034/1217
  • Persistent Identifier
    https://doi.org/10.23668/psycharchives.1409
  • Language of content
    eng
  • Publisher
    PsychOpen GOLD
  • Is version of
    https://doi.org/10.5964/ejop.v9i4.632
  • Keyword(s)
    Marital Justice Scale (MJS)
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    validity
    en_US
  • Keyword(s)
    reliability
    en_US
  • Dewey Decimal Classification number(s)
    150
  • Title
    Construction and Validation of the Marital Justice Scale: Adaptation of Social Justice Theory in Marriage
    en_US
  • DRO type
    article
  • Issue
    4
  • Journal title
    Europe's Journal of Psychology
  • Page numbers
    731–743
  • Volume
    9
  • Visible tag(s)
    Version of Record