title: Gay and lesbian couples in Italy: comparisons with heterosexual couples.
abstract: Assessing couple relationships across diverse languages and cultures has important implications for both clinical intervention and prevention. This is especially true for nontraditional relationships potentially subject to various expressions of negative societal evaluation or bias. Few empirically validated measures of relationship functioning have been developed for cross-cultural applications, and none have been examined for their psychometric sufficiency for evaluating same-sex couples across different languages and cultures. The current study examined the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory - Revised (MSI-R), a 150-item 13-scale measure of couple relationship functioning, for its use in assessing the intimate relationships of gay and lesbian couples in Italy. Results for these couples were compared to data from heterosexual married and unmarried cohabiting couples from the same geographical region, as well as to previously published data for gay, lesbian, and unmarried heterosexual couples from the United States. Findings suggest that, despite unique societal pressures confronting Italian same-sex couples, these relationships appear resilient and fare well both overall and in specific domains of functioning compared to heterosexual couples both in Italy and the United States.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Sciences, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Antonelli
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Dèttore
authors.forename: Irene
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Lasagni
authors.forename: Douglas K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Snyder
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Balderrama-Durbin
mesh_terms: D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D020010:Heterosexuality / Q000523:psychology*; D018452:Homosexuality, Female / Q000523:psychology*; D018451:Homosexuality, Male / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007558:Italy; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D010549:Personal Satisfaction; D011594:Psychometrics; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology*; D012847:Single Person / Q000523:psychology; D014177:Translations; D014481:United States
keywords: Assessment; Gay and Lesbian Couples; Italian Marriage; Marital Satisfaction; Relationship Functioning; Same-Sex Couples; evaluación; funcionamiento de la relación; matrimonio italiano; parejas de homosexuales y lesbianas; parejas del mismo sexo; satisfacción marital; 关系功能; 同性伴侣; 婚姻满意度。; 意大利婚姻; 男同和女同伴侣; 评估