Assessing Young Adults’ Beliefs Regarding the Importance of Romantic Relationships

Abstract

In the current study, we provided initial evidence for the factor structure and validity of the Brief Measure of Relationship Importance, a new measure of young adults’ beliefs about the values and costs of being in romantic relationships. Based on exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, this measure consisted of two subscales: relationship desire (two items; viewing relationships as important and satisfying parts of one’s life) and relationship dismissal (four items; viewing relationships as less desirable or valuable for one’s life). Relationship desire and dismissal scores were associated with participants’ happiness with their romantic experiences, relationship satisfaction, having experienced relationship cycling, marriage intentions, and general interest in being in a romantic relationship. Therefore, we concluded that the Brief Measure of Relationship Importance provides a reliable and valid assessment of young adults’ romantic relationship attitudes. We discuss how our measure can be used in future research on young adults’ romantic relationship development.

Keywords

romantic relationships romantic relationship attitudes young adulthood union formation

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