MRI-SF-J

hat may predict violence. To prevent the occurrence of violence, itis effective to measure behaviors that predict violence in advance. This study developed the Mate Retention Inventory-Short Form-Japanese Version (MRI-SF-J) to examine its reliability and validity, the frequency of occurrence of mate retention strategies, and gender differences in the use of such strategies in Japan. The MRI-SF-J was administered to 843 Japanese university students and adults. Other items, such as duration of the relationship or marriage, partner violence, relationship maintenance motivation, abandonment anxiety, and aggression were also measured. First, for the 816 participants with no missing values, the frequency of occurrence of mate retention strategies was examined: 20–43%, 10–59%, and 4–40% of the subjects indicated that, respectively, they had used the negative strategies of “direct guarding,” “intersexual negative inducement,” and “intrasexual negative inducement” at least once. Gender differences were also observed for many strategies, with men more often using many of the strategies toward rivals and “positive inducements” with their partners. In contrast, women engaged in more indirect behaviors, such as checking to see if their partner would leave them or making their partner jealous. To examine reliability, a high Cronbach’s alpha (=.90) was obtained for the entire scale. Moreover, the relationship with other scales was examined for criterion-related validity, and the hypothesized relationship was generally observed. Thus, the MSR-SF-J’s reliability and validity were confirmed.