Name and Type of Measure
The Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (MAT; Locke and Wallace 1959) is a measure of general marital quality or satisfaction, as well as a measure of agreement or disagreement on common issues that cause conflict for couples.
Synonyms
Locke-Wallace*; Short Marital Adjustment Test*
Introduction
The Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test (Locke and Wallace 1959) is one of the two most prevalently used measures of marital satisfaction (with 3322 citations as of January 2017), and is freely available for research and therapeutic practice. The Locke-Wallace* is a short (15-item) self-report measure of marital satisfaction and areas of disagreement. The measure utilizes a complex scoring system with ten item weightings. Higher scores reflect better marital satisfaction and more agreement between spouses. Scores on the Locke-Wallace* range from 2 to 158, with a cut-off score of 100. Scores less than 100 indicate marital dissatisfaction or maladjustment. The measure...
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References
Arias, I., & O’Leary, K. D. (1985). Semantic and perceptual discrepancies in discordant and nondiscordant marriages. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 9, 51–60.
Cross, D. G., & Sharpley, C. F. (1981). The Locke-Wallace marital adjustment test reconsidered: Some psychometric findings as regards its reliability and factorial validity. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 41, 1303–1306.
Freeston, M. H., & Plechaty, M. (1997). Reconsideration of the Locke-Wallace marital adjustment test: Is it still relevant for the 1990s? Psychological Reports, 81, 419–434.
Locke, H. J., & Wallace, K. M. (1959). Short marital-adjustment and prediction tests: Their reliability and validity. Marriage and Family Living, 21(3), 251–255.
Margolin, G., & Weiss, R. L. (1978). Comparative evaluation of therapeutic components associated with behavioral marital treatments. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 46, 1476–1486.
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Fink, B.C., Shapiro, A.F. (2019). Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test. In: Lebow, J.L., Chambers, A.L., Breunlin, D.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Couple and Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_405
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49425-8_405
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