Citation

Barry RA, Lawrence EE, Langer A. Pers. Relatsh. 2008; 15(3): 297-315.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, International Society for the Study of Personal Relationships, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1475-6811.2008.00200.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Research examining relationship distress and dissolution highlights the importance of romantic disengagement. Nevertheless, prior conceptualizations and measures of romantic disengagement have tended to combine disengagement with related but distinct constructs hindering the study of romantic disengagement. The present research used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to clarify the conceptualization of romantic disengagement and to develop a novel measure—the Romantic Disengagement Scale (RDS). The RDS demonstrated adequate fit across samples of dating individuals (n = 203), married couples (n = 77), and women in physically aggressive relationships (n = 42) from the Midwestern United States. The RDS also demonstrated strong divergent and incremental validity. The discussion focuses on implications for enhancing conceptual models, research methodology, and clinical interventions.