So What Is Relationship Quality? A Multi-Country Investigation into the Conceptualization and Measurement of Relationship Quality

<h3>Project Overview</h3>
<p> Romantic relationship quality is a foundational construct, yet there remains no consensus on its definition, conceptualization, and measurement. This study presents findings from a large-scale qualitative investigation (N=184; 10,055 minutes of interview data) of lay individuals across five countries (Philippines, United States, France, Brazil and Türkiye), and relationship therapists (N=21; 11 countries; 893 minutes of interview data) to understand how individuals conceptualize and evaluate romantic relationship quality.</p>
<p>Through a thematic and conceptual analysis, we find that while individuals’ evaluations of their relationships are heterogeneous, they exhibit constrained variability with consistently shared themes across culturally different countries. The shared themes are mapped to a relationship ecosystem comprising of higher-order categories of relationship characteristics (e.g., stability), self-states (e.g., satisfaction, instrumentality), perceived partner characteristics (e.g., trust, responsiveness), dyadic interactions (e.g., conflict, needs expression), and contextual variables (e.g., material resources, religion). Romantic relationship quality is then defined as a subjective evaluation based on idiographically held standards, which represents the individual’s sense-making of their relationship ecosystem. While shared elements exist across cultures, their relative importance and manifestation vary across culturally different countries (e.g., the Turkish distinction between love as passionate or companionate, or the Filipino emphasis on religion).</p>
<p>This provides the foundation for a comprehensive framework for psychometrically representing romantic relationship quality which is ecologically valid, with strong promise for utility in clinical practice. </p>