General attitudes towards marriage scale: Psychometric properties in Malaysian adolescents of divorced families

• Main Authors: Fam, Jia Yuin *, Siti, Nor Yaacob, Rumaya Juhairi,, Zarinah Arshat,, Firdaus Mukhtar,
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Verlag (Germany) 2017
• Subjects: HQ The family. Marriage. Woman
• Online Access: http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/526/1/FAM%20JY%20-%20GENERAL%20ATTITUDES%20TOWARDS%20MARRIAGE%20SCALE.pdf; http://eprints.sunway.edu.my/526/; https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-017-0849-7

Attitudes towards marriage in adolescence may influence the relationship quality in later years. There exist many measures of attitudes towards marriage which were validated among adolescents from two-parent family in the Western context. There is a need to validate measure of attitudes towards marriage in different countries. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Malay version of General Attitudes towards Marriage Scale (GAMS) in a sample of 480 adolescents from divorced families in Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis yielded a two-factor structure of GAMS, which explained for 60% of the variance. Additionally, the two-factor structure of GAMS demonstrated good fit to data in the confirmatory factor analysis (TLI=.941, CFI=.958, RMSEA=.087, and χ2/ df = 4.615). Overall, the GAMS exhibited good internal consistency (α = .901), which supports the reliability of the instrument. The significant relationships between GAMS and other constructs also provided evidences to the convergent validity (r = .761, p < .001 with intent to marry, r = -.170, p < .001 with overt inter-parental conflict, and r = .523, p < .001 with mother-adolescent relationship). Significant gender difference was found in the report of GAMS (t=-2.265, p<.05). Thus, the translated GAMS is a reliable, valid, and practical instrument to measure attitudes towards marriage among Malaysian adolescents in divorced family setting.