Preliminary development and validation of a measure of relationship authenticity

The authors describe the-preliminary development and validation of the Authenticity in Relationships Scale. An initial pool of 37 items addressing various elements of the proposed definition of relationship authenticity was administered to 2 independent samples of undergraduates (N = 487) who acknowledged being in a current romantic relationship. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that 2 interpretable factors (Unacceptability of Deception, Intimate Risk Taking) effectively represented the data in both samples. Retest data over a 3-month interval were also gathered from a separate independent sample of 121 participants. Subscale scores composed of factor-unique items demonstrated good reliability and test-retest stability, correlated in expected directions with scores on several measures used to establish construct validity, and made unique contributions to the prediction of relationship satisfaction after gender, self-esteem, commitment level, and adult attachment orientations were controlled.