Quality of Romantic Relationships - Collateral Follow-up

This measure appears in the following time-points: Collat12, Collat24, Collat36.

Related Construct

Romantic Relationships

Description of Measure

The Quality of Romantic Relationships inventory was adapted for this study to evaluate the support, conflict, and depth of the adolescent's romantic relationships (Pierce, 1994; Pierce, Sarason, Sarason, Solky-Butzel, & Nagle, 1997). This scale assess the relationship along 4 dimensions based on the collateral report: Quality of Relationship (e.g., "In general, how happy are you with your relationship?"), Knowledge of Behavior and Deviance (e.g., "How much does X know who you spend time with?"), Tolerance of Deviance (e.g., "Would you know if X had been using drugs?"), and Antisocial Influence (e.g., "Have you suggested that X should sell drugs?"). The fourth subscale was derived from items mirroring the ones asked regarding peer delinquency; but using the romantic partner, not the peers, as the referent person. In addition, for those youth who live with their romantic partner, two additional questions assess how much the romantic partner monitors the behavior of the participant. For each question, the participant responds on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from "not at all" to "very much"; therefore, for the first three subscales, higher scores indicate a more symbiotic romantic relationship and for the last three subscales, more antisocial influence, antisocial behavior and more monitoring respectively. In some cases the romantic partner in question will be the collateral reporter, if the collateral is in a relationship with the subject at the time of the collateral interview.

We compute four scores from this measure:

Romantic Relationship - Quality of Relationship [C#RELQLT]; mean of 7 items. Computed only if the collateral reporter is currently in a relationship with the subject.
Romantic Relationship - Tolerance of Deviance [C#RELDEV]; mean of 2 items. Computed only if the subject has been in a relationship over the past year.
Romantic Relationship - Monitoring [C#RELCON]; mean of 5 items. Computed only if the collateral reporter is in currently in a relationship with the subject.
Romantic Relationship - Antisocial Influence, relies on items from the peer delinquency section to assess the antisocial influence from the romantic partner on the subject [C#DEL]; count of 7 items. Computed only if the subject has been in a relationship over the past year.

The following items are also available for this measure:

Whether the subject had a serious romantic relationship over the past year [C#Rom]
Number of relationships the subject had over the past year [C#RomNum]
Whether the collateral is the boyfriend/girlfriend in question (see Data Issues section for further explanation of this variable) [C#RomCol]
Whether the subject was in a relationship at the time of the interview (see Data Issues section for further explanation of this variable) [C#RomNow]

Data Issues

The phrasing of C#RomCol is dependent on the collateral's response to C#RomNum (number of relationships the subject had over the past year):

If RomNum = 1 (only one romantic relationship over the past year), then RomCol will be phrased as "Are you (the collateral) the boyfriend/girlfriend in question?"
If RomNum is greater than 1 (multiple romantic relationships over the past year), then RomCol will be phrased as "Are you (the collateral) the boyfriend/girlfriend with whom the subject was involved for the longest period of time over the last year?"

Similarly, C#RomNow is dependent on C#RomCol:

If RomCol is yes, then this is phrased as "Is X currently in a relationship with you (the collateral)?"
If RomCol is no, then this is phrased as "Is X currently in a relationship with him/her?"

Item RQ10 (how much does X know how you spend money) was not asked at collateral interview version 01.07, but is available at all other interview versions. This item is used in the computation of c#relqlt (quality of relationship).

References

Hendrick, S. (1998) A generic measure of relationship satisfaction. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 50, 93-98.
Hendrick , S.S., Dicke, A., Hendrick, C. (1998). The Relationship Assessment Scale. Journal of Social & personal relationships, 15(1), 137-142.
Pierce, G.P. (1994). The quality of relationships inventory: assessing the interpersonal context of social support. In B.R. Burleson, T.L. Albrecht, and I.G. Sarason (eds), Communication of Social Support: Messages, Interactions, Relationships, and Community, (247-266). Newbury Park CA: Sage.
Pierce, G., Sarason, I.G., Sarason, B.R., Solky-Butzel, J.A., and Nagle, L.C. (1997). Assessing the quality of personal relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, 339-356.