Development of Premarital Readiness Assessment Scale (Partners Test) to Assess the Need for Premarital Counseling

Abstract

　　Recently, increased number of divorce has been reported. To prevent a divorce and to build a happy marital life, premarital readiness assessment and appropriate support including premarital counseling is needed. This study aimed to develop a premarital readiness assessment scale (Partners Test) for premarital couples. Partners Test comprised three questionnaires: a 30-item Partners comprising 6 subscales (Communication, Personality Trait, Sexual Role, Sense of Relief, Dominance, and Finance), a 21-item Personality Test consisting of 4 subscales (Extraversion, Neuroticism, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness), and a 9-item FACES Ⅲ revised version consisting of 2 subscales (Cohesion and Adaptability). Participants were 180 pairs of couples (180 males and 180 females). Kmeans cluster analysis using couples' agreement scores of 12 sub-scales divided 180 couples into three clusters: “High agreement in Communication”(Cluster 1), “Disagreement in Communication and Sense of Relief ” (Cluster 2), and “High agreement in all sub-scales” (Cluster 3). Couples of Cluster 2 revealed a less satisfaction in couple relationship, a poor skill of communication and conflict resolution, an insufficient understanding of self-and-other, which suggested the necessity of premarital counseling to enhance these skills. A multi regression analysis revealed positive path relations from Communication, Sense of Relief, Extroversion, and Cohesion to Satisfaction in married life.