We are interested in reflection symmetric (x → - x) evolution problems on the infinite line. In the systems which we have in mind, a trivial ground state loses stability and bifurcates into a temporally oscillating, spatial periodic pattern. A famous example of such a system is the Taylor-Couette problem in the case of strongly counter-rotating cylinders. In this paper, we consider a system of coupled Kuramoto-Shivashinsky equations as a model problem for such a system. We are interested in solutions which are slow modulations in time and in space of the bifurcating pattern. Multiple scaling analysis is used in the existing literature to derive mean-field coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations as approximation equations for the problem. The aim of this paper is to give exact estimates between the solutions of the coupled Kuramoto-Shivashinsky equations and the associated approximations.