Data from: Measuring couple relationship quality in a rural African population: validation of a couple functionality assessment tool in Malawi

Available data suggest that individual and family well-being are linked to the quality of women’s and men’s couple relationships, but few tools exist to assess couple relationship functioning in low and middle-income countries. In response to this gap, Catholic Relief Services has developed a Couple Functionality Assessment Tool (CFAT) to capture valid and reliable data on various domains of relationship quality. This tool is designed to be used by interventions which aim to improve couple and family well-being as a means of measuring the effectiveness of these interventions, particularly related to couple relationship quality. We carried out a validation study of the CFAT among 401 married and cohabiting adults (203 women and 198 men) in rural Chikhwawa District, Malawi. Using psychometric scales, the CFAT addressed six domains of couple relationship quality (intimacy, partner support, sexual satisfaction, gender roles, decision-making, and communication and conflict management), and included questions on intimate partner violence. We used exploratory factor analysis to assess scale performance of each domain and produce a shortened Relationship Quality Index (RQI) composed of items from five relationship quality domains. This article reports the performance of the RQI. Internal reliability and validity of the RQI were found to be good. Regression analyses examined the relationship of the RQI to outcomes important to health and development: intra-household cooperation, positive health behaviors, intimate partner violence, and gender-equitable norms. We found many significant correlations between RQI scores and these couple- and family-level development issues. There is a need to further validate the tool with use in other populations as well as to continue to explore whether the observed linkages between couple functionality and development outcomes are causal relationships.

现有数据显示，个体与家庭福祉与男女双方的伴侣关系质量存在显著关联，但在中低收入国家，用于评估伴侣关系功能的专业工具仍十分稀缺。针对这一研究空白，天主教救济服务机构（Catholic Relief Services）开发了伴侣功能评估工具（Couple Functionality Assessment Tool，CFAT），用于采集伴侣关系质量各维度的有效且可靠的研究数据。该工具专为旨在改善伴侣与家庭福祉的干预项目设计，可用于评估此类项目的实施效果，尤其是在伴侣关系质量改善方面的成效。我们在马拉维奇克瓦瓦县（Chikhwawa District）农村地区的401名已婚及同居成年人（其中女性203名、男性198名）中开展了CFAT的效度验证研究。该工具采用心理计量学量表，涵盖伴侣关系质量的6个维度：亲密关系、伴侣支持、性满意度、性别角色、决策方式，以及沟通与冲突管理，并包含了针对亲密伴侣暴力的相关问题。我们通过探索性因素分析评估了各维度量表的表现，并从5个伴侣关系质量维度中提取条目，构建了简化版的伴侣关系质量指数（Relationship Quality Index，RQI）。本文报告了RQI的表现情况，结果显示该指数具有良好的内部信度与效度。我们通过回归分析，探究了RQI与健康及发展领域关键结果变量之间的关联，这些变量包括家庭内部合作、积极健康行为、亲密伴侣暴力，以及性别平等规范。研究发现，RQI得分与上述伴侣及家庭层面的发展议题之间存在诸多显著相关关系。未来仍需在其他人群中进一步验证该工具的适用性，并继续探究伴侣关系功能与发展结果之间的关联是否为因果关系。