Marital Happiness Scale [MHS-9]

Scale Analysis and Objective

The Marital Happiness Scale (MHS-9) was developed by Azrin, Naster, and Jones in 1973 to assess the degree of satisfaction an individual derives from the behavior of their spouse across important areas of married life. According to the available material, the scale was later adapted for use in a Greek sample by Heinz in 1995.

The MHS-9 focuses on the respondent’s subjective evaluation of the marital relationship and provides a concise assessment of satisfaction across several domains of everyday interaction between spouses.

Its main objective is to determine how satisfied an individual feels with their spouse’s behavior and with the overall functioning of the relationship in major areas of shared life.

Item Scoring

The MHS-9 consists of 9 items, each referring to a different domain of interaction within marriage.

The domains described in the available material include:

  • child rearing,
  • household responsibilities,
  • social activities,
  • communication,
  • finances,
  • sexual relations,
  • occupational or career progress,
  • independence,
  • and an additional area of marital interaction included in the original scale structure.

Participants are asked to indicate how satisfied they are with their spouse in each domain using a 10-point Likert-type scale, ranging from:

1 = Very dissatisfied

to

10 = Very satisfied

Higher scores indicate greater satisfaction with the marital relationship.

Statistical Analysis and Interpretation

For interpretation purposes, the original 10-point response scale may be converted into five broader categories:

1–2: Not at all satisfied
3–4: Slightly satisfied
5–6: Moderately satisfied
7–8: Quite satisfied
9–10: Very satisfied

The overall score may be calculated as the mean of the 9 item scores, that is, by dividing the sum of all item scores by the number of items.

This approach preserves the original numerical range and allows the final score to be interpreted according to one of the five satisfaction categories above.

A higher mean score indicates greater overall marital satisfaction, whereas a lower score indicates lower satisfaction with the relationship.

In research settings, the overall score may also be treated as a continuous variable for descriptive analyses, group comparisons, and investigation of associations between marital satisfaction and psychological, social, or demographic variables.

Validity and Reliability

According to the available material, the scale was translated and adapted for use in a Greek sample by Heinz, with the results indicating good construct validity.

The reported internal consistency coefficient is Cronbach’s α = 0.87, indicating good reliability of the instrument for assessing marital satisfaction.

This level of internal consistency supports the use of the MHS-9 as a brief measure of overall marital satisfaction, particularly in research contexts.

Applications

The MHS-9 may be used to investigate marital quality and satisfaction, as well as factors potentially associated with happiness and functioning within a couple’s relationship.

It may also be applied in research on family functioning, partner communication, psychological well-being, marital conflict, and other aspects of close interpersonal relationships.

The scale should be regarded as a measure of subjective marital satisfaction and should not be used on its own as a diagnostic instrument for determining the overall quality or viability of a relationship.

References

Authors: Azrin, N. H., Naster, B. J., & Jones, R.

Greek Adaptation: Heinz, E.

Azrin, N. H., Naster, B. J., & Jones, R. (1973). Reciprocity counseling: A rapid learning-based procedure for marital counseling. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 11(4), 365–382.