Abeeha Ali2026-01-212026-01-212025https://escholar.umt.edu.pk/handle/123456789/18387This study aimed to develop and validate the Marriage Expectations Scale for Newly Married Individuals (MESNMI), an indigenous tool to assess culturally specific marital expectations in Pakistan. Employed a mixed-methods design, Phase 1 involved qualitative item generation through semi-structured interviews with 8 newly married participants (4 men, 4 women) married for 6 months–1.5 years. The interview guide was made based on literature review, cultural consultation, and expert review, which ensured conceptual clarity and cultural fit. Interviews were audio-recorded, verbatim transcribed, and thematically analyzed, yielding 3 main constructs: expectations from self, partner, and in-laws. Phase 2 comprised four sub-phases. In first phase, the item pool from Phase 1 interviews was polished for conceptual clarity. In second phase, content validity index was assessed by 10 experts using a four-point likert scale, reducing 48 items to 43. In third phase, a pilot study was conducted which confirmed clarity and feasibility of the items. In fourth phase, the finalized MESNMI and Urdu DASS-21 were administered online to 232 participants (63.8% women, 36.2% men) aged 20–35 years and married from 6 months to 1.5 year. Exploratory factor analysis in IBM SPSS confirmed a two- factor structure, Emotional and Intimate Bonding and Family Integration and Personal Fulfilment with excellent reliability (α = .94), significant negative correlations with DASS-21 (p < .05) confirmed discriminant validity and t-test was run to check gender, family systems and types of marriage differences among data. The scale MESNMI, is a sound, reliable, culturally relevant tool for research and marital counseling in PakistanenThesis