Development of Marital Conflict Areas Index and the Conflict Styles Inventory: Reliability and Validity Studies

The purpose of this study is to develop the Conflict Areas Index (CAI) to identify possible conflict areas that couples experience in their marriages and to develop the Conflict Styles Inventory (CSI) to assess how they deal with these conflicts. Exploratory (N=374) and confirmatory (N=152) factor analysis and test-retest (N=49) examinations were conducted with a sample of 575 married individuals in total. For the first scale, principal component analysis (PCA) was used to examine the construct validity of the CAI. According to the results, a single component giving frequency values for 15 different conflict areas was identified. In the criterion-related validity studies, the scale had a significant, negative, and strong correlation with the Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) (r=-.72) and the level of satisfaction with the relationship (r=-.67). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found as .91. For the second scale, the construct validity of the CSI was examined using Exploratory Factor Analysis. The results revealed a three-dimensional structure named destructive, passive, and active conflict resolution styles. In the criterion-related validity studies, it was found significant and positive correlations between destructive (r=.14) and passive (r=.18) conflict resolution styles with CAI scores and a significant and negative correlation between active resolution style with CAI scores. In addition, there were significant and negative correlations between destructive (r=-.15) and passive (r=-.12) conflict resolution styles with the RAS scores and a significant and positive correlation between active conflict resolution style with the RAS scores. The Cronbach's alpha coefficients were .88, .87, and .87 for destructive, passive, and active conflict resolution styles, respectively. The correlation values between the scores of the CSI within a 14-day time interval were ⍴=.94, ⍴=.91, and ⍴=.83 for destructive, passive, and active conflict resolution styles, respectively. These results indicated that CAI and CSI have sufficient psychometric properties that can be used to assess conflict areas and conflict resolution styles of married individuals.