The relationship sabotage scale: an evaluation of factor analyses and constructive validity

Summary & key facts

The authors developed and tested the Relationship Sabotage Scale (RSS) to measure self-defeating patterns in romantic relationships. They ran three studies with a total of 1,365 English-speaking people from varied gender, sexual, and cultural backgrounds. After initial exploratory analyses, a confirmatory factor analysis supported a final 12-item scale with three factors: defensiveness, trust difficulty, and lack of relationship skills. The authors say the RSS can give clear information about individual patterns and may help explain why some people repeat destructive behaviours across relationships, but they also call for more research to test the scale with attachment and other relationship

Key facts:

• The research included three studies with a combined sample of 1,365 English-speaking participants.
• The final Relationship Sabotage Scale (RSS) has 12 items.
• The RSS measures three factors: defensiveness, trust difficulty, and lack of relationship skills.
• The first two studies used exploratory factor analysis and one-congeneric model analyses; the third study used confirmatory factor analysis to confirm the scale structure.
• Constructive validity analyses were conducted to assess how the RSS relates to other measures.
• Participants were described as having diverse gender orientations, sexual orientations, and cultural backgrounds.
• The authors state the RSS can provide information that helps explain why individuals may engage in destructive behaviours from one relationship to the next.
• The authors recommend further research to test the RSS alongside other factors such as relationship differences and insecure attachment.

Abstract

The RSS is a brief scale that provides conclusive information about individual patterns in relationships. Findings using this scale can offer explanations regarding the reasons that individuals engage in destructive behaviours from one relationship to the next. Investigations should continue to test a model for sabotage in romantic relationships using the developed scale and other factors such as relationship diferences and insecure attachment. More specifically, this measure can be used to understand mediator constructs of relational outcomes within the attachment framework to explain relationship dissolution and work towards relationship maintenance.

Topics

Attachment and Relationship Dynamics Customer Service Quality and Loyalty Marriage and Sexual Relationships

Categories

Psychology Social Psychology Social Sciences

Tags

Applied psychology Computer science Confirmatory factor analysis Constructive Developmental psychology Exploratory factor analysis Mathematics Operating system Physics Process (computing) Psychoanalysis Psychology Psychometrics Quantum mechanics Romance Scale (ratio) Social psychology Statistics Structural equation modeling