Satisfaction with the Relationship (Romantic)

What it measures

The scale assesses overall satisfaction within a romantic relationship, drawn from established investment-model theory.

Response format

7-point Likert

Scale items

• I feel satisfied with our relationship.
• My relationship is much better than others’ relationships.
• My relationship is close to ideal.
• Our relationship makes me very happy.
• Our relationship does a good job of fulfilling my needs for intimacy, companionship, etc.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

This is a subscale of Rusbult, Martz, and Agnew's (1998) established Investment Model Scale, used by Garbinsky et al. (2020) with married adults — a companion to the Investment and Quality of Alternatives scales from the same study. The original authors demonstrated strong reliability for the broader satisfaction measure; here it showed excellent reliability (α = .96). Validity wasn't separately reassessed.

Recommended companion scales

Citation

Garbinsky, E.N., Gladstone, J.J., Nikolova, H., & Olson, J.G. (2020). Love, Lies, and Money: Financial Infidelity in Romantic Relationships. Journal of Consumer Research, 47(1), 1–24.

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