Marital Coping Inventory [MCI-64]

Description and Purpose of the Scale

The Marital Coping Inventory (MCI-64) is a psychometric instrument developed by Bowman in 1990 to assess the strategies individuals use to cope with difficult, demanding, or stressful situations within intimate and marital relationships.

The scale focuses on how individuals respond to significant relationship problems, particularly those associated with their partner’s behavior. By assessing different coping patterns, the MCI-64 provides insight into the behavioral and emotional responses individuals employ when dealing with interpersonal stress, disagreements, conflicts, and other relationship difficulties.

Structure of the Scale

The MCI-64 consists of 64 items organized into five distinct subscales:

Conflict: Assesses behaviors and reactions characterized by direct confrontation, disagreement, and conflict between partners.

Self-Blame: Examines the tendency to attribute responsibility for relationship problems or difficulties to oneself.

Positive Approach: Assesses constructive and positive strategies used to address and manage relationship problems.

Self-Interest: Evaluates coping strategies that emphasize the individual’s personal needs, interests, and priorities when dealing with relationship difficulties.

Avoidance: Measures the tendency to withdraw from, postpone, or avoid directly addressing relationship problems or conflicts.

Together, these dimensions provide a multidimensional representation of the strategies individuals may employ when attempting to manage stressful situations within their relationships.

Administration and Scoring

When completing the MCI-64, participants are initially asked to think about a significant problem in their relationship that is associated with their partner’s behavior. They then respond to the individual items while keeping this specific problem in mind.

Responses are recorded using a five-point Likert-type scale, ranging from 1 = “never” to 5 = “almost always.”

Scores for the individual subscales can be calculated by obtaining the mean of the corresponding items, thereby indicating the degree to which each coping strategy is used. Higher scores on a particular dimension indicate more frequent use of the respective coping strategy.

Data Analysis and Use

Data obtained through the MCI-64 can be analyzed primarily at the level of its individual subscales, allowing researchers to identify the coping strategies that are more or less frequently employed within intimate relationships.

Descriptive statistical analyses may be used to summarize participants’ scores, while inferential statistical methods can examine differences between demographic or other relevant groups. Correlation and regression analyses may also be employed to investigate associations between marital coping strategies and other variables included in a research design.

Reliability analyses can additionally be conducted to evaluate the internal consistency of the scale and its individual dimensions within the population under investigation.

Validity and Reliability

According to the information available for the Greek adaptation, the MCI-64 has been translated and adapted into Greek using an independent back-translation procedure.

The five subscales demonstrated satisfactory levels of internal consistency. The reported Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were:

Avoidance: α = .75
Conflict: α = .88
Self-Blame: α = .90
Self-Interest: α = .86
Positive Approach: α = .86

These findings indicate satisfactory to high internal consistency across the five dimensions and support the reliability of the instrument for assessing different coping strategies within the context in which the Greek version was examined.

Applications

The MCI-64 can be used primarily in research focusing on intimate and marital relationships, interpersonal coping, relationship stress, and conflict management.

It can contribute to the investigation of how different coping strategies are associated with relationship functioning and other psychosocial variables included in a research study. The multidimensional structure of the instrument also allows researchers to examine individual coping patterns rather than relying exclusively on a single overall indicator.

The interpretation of results should therefore take into consideration the individual subscale scores, the characteristics of the study population, and the specific objectives of the research.

Conclusion

The Marital Coping Inventory [MCI-64] provides a structured approach to assessing how individuals cope with difficult and stressful situations within intimate and marital relationships. Its five dimensions—Conflict, Self-Blame, Positive Approach, Self-Interest, and Avoidance—allow for a more detailed examination of the different strategies individuals may employ when responding to relationship-related difficulties.

By identifying these coping patterns, the MCI-64 can provide useful information for research examining interpersonal relationships, relationship stress, coping processes, and related psychosocial factors.

References

Bowman, M. L. (1990). Coping efforts and marital satisfaction: Measuring marital coping and its correlates. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 52(2), 463–474.

Tsagarakis, M., Piperakis, S., & Stalikas, A. (2005). Factor structure, validity, and reliability of the Greek version of the Marital Coping Inventory. Unpublished manuscript.

Scale Developer: Bowman, M. L.
Greek Adaptation: Tsagarakis, M., Piperakis, S., & Stalikas, A.