The Factor Structure of the Polish-Language Version of the Romantic Beliefs Scale

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Polish adaptation of Romantic Beliefs Scale (RBS; Sprecher & Metts, 1989). In a sample of 414 Polish university students aged 19-25 (227 females and 187 males), the factor structure of the original English version was confirmed for the four subscales: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. The present study provides evidence that the 15-item version of the Polish adaptation of the (RBS) possesses a factor structure and psychometric properties comparable to the English-language version of RBS. It was shown to be a reliable self-report measure for romantic beliefs within a sample of the Polish population. The development of a new Polish measure of romantic beliefs has provided further validation for the RBS, and provided evidence in support of the ideology of romanticism in various populations, and indicated the importance of differentiating between the different types of romantic beliefs.

Headnote

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Polish adaptation of Romantic Beliefs Scale (RBS; Sprecher & Metts, 1989). In a sample of 414 Polish university students aged 19-25 (227 females and 187 males), the factor structure of the original English version was confirmed for the four subscales: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. The present study provides evidence that the 15-item version of the Polish adaptation of the (RBS) possesses a factor structure and psychometric properties comparable to the English-language version of RBS. It was shown to be a reliable self-report measure for romantic beliefs within a sample of the Polish population. The development of a new Polish measure of romantic beliefs has provided further validation for the RBS, and provided evidence in support of the ideology of romanticism in various populations, and indicated the importance of differentiating between the different types of romantic beliefs.

Keywords: factor structure, adult measurement, romantic beliefs, Polish adaptation

Faktorska struktura Skale romanticnih vjerovanja - prijevod na poljski jezik

Sazetak

Cilj je istrazivanja bio ispitati faktorsku strukturu i psihometrijske karakteristike Skale romanticnih vjerovanja prevedene na poljski jezik (RBS; Sprecher & Metts, 1989). Na uzorku je od 414 poljskih studenata, u dobi od 19 do 25 godina (227 djevojaka i 187 mladica), potvrðena faktorska struktura originalne verzije na engleskom jeziku, koja se sastoji od cetiri podljestvice: Ljubav naðe svoj put, Jedan i jedini, Idealizacija, Ljubav na prvi pogled. Istrazivanje pokazuje da poljska adaptacija RBS skale s 15 cestica posjeduje faktorsku strukturu i psihometrijske karakteristike koje su usporedive s verzijom RBS skale na engleskom jeziku. Skala se pokazala pouzdanom mjerom samoprocjene romanticnih vjerovanja na poljskom uzorku. Razvoj je nove mjere romanticnih vjerovanja prilagoðene za interpretaciju na poljskom jeziku omogucio daljnju validaciju originalne RBS skale i pruzio dokaze u prilog postojanja romanticnih vjerovanja na razlicitim uzorcima, ukazavsi na vaznost razlikovanja razlicitih tipova romanticnih vjerovanja.

Kljucne rijeci: faktorska struktura, mjerenje u odraslih, romanticna vjerovanja, prijevod na poljski jezik

Received: 20.03.2013.

Introduction

During the process of socialization, children, adolescents and young adults internalize the ideals of romantic love and develop expectations of romantic relationships that seem to be natural and commonplace (Turner & Helms, 1991). These ideals, including such beliefs as love conquers all obstacles, true love lasts forever, love is the primary basis for marriage, and love at first sight is possible, constitute the so-called ideology of romance (Holland & Eisenhart, 1990). These ideals, at least in Western cultures, are evident in most media such as songs and movies, characterize traditional romantic relationships (Hatfield & Rapson, 1987), and continue to influence individuals' expectations and behaviors in romantic relationships (Baucom & Epstein, 1990). To measure the romantic ideology of love, Sprecher and Metts (1989) developed the Romantic Beliefs Scale (RBS) which became the most widely used instrument in this research area. It consists of items selected from a description of the ideology of romanticism as a part of romantic love ideal typology which was initially created by Lantz, Schmitt, and Herman (1973) from content analyses of literary texts, and was summarized by Michener, DeLamater, and Schwartz (1986). The romantic love ideal is comprised of the following five beliefs about love: (1) love at first sight, (2) one and only, (3) love conquers all, (4) idealization, and (5) follow the heart. These ideals were originally represented as five subscales, but the results of an exploratory factor analysis revealed that four, rather than five, factors better distinguished the dimensions (Sprecher & Metts, 1989). Thus, the current Romantic Beliefs Scale (RBS) consists of four subscales: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. The RBS is a 15- item Likert-type scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree) with higher scores indicating greater endorsement of romantic beliefs.

Reliability of the RBS subscales was tested by calculating their internal consistencies. Cronbach's α reliability coefficients in the original study ranged for from .57 to .80 across the subscales and .81 for the full scale (Sprecher & Metts, 1989). In later studies, coefficient alphas for the total scale and for the subscales were also high (Jones & Cunningham, 1996; Sharp & Ganong, 2000; Sprecher & Metts, 1999; Weaver & Ganong, 2004). The RBS has also demonstrated acceptable levels of temporal consistency for both men and women, namely temporal reliabilities for the total scale were .75 for three weeks (subscale ranges, .49 to .73; Sprecher & Metts, 1989) and .72 for four months (Sharp & Ganong, 2000). For six months, reliability coefficients were .70 for men and .72 for women (subscale ranges were .47 to .72 for men and .60 to .72 for women; Sprecher & Metts, 1999).

In regard to validity of the RBS, in the original study it demonstrated adequate construct validity. The RBS scores correlated significantly and positively with the Spaulding Complex Love Scale (.62); the Sex-Love-Marriage scale (.35); a measure of passionate love (.24); Rubin's Love (.42) and Liking Scale (.35); the Love Reactions Scale (.32); and Hendrick and Hendrick's Eros (.48) and Agape (.39) love style scales (see Sprecher & Metts, 1989). The RBS also correlated significantly and negatively with the number of dates prior to falling in love (-.26), and the Ludus love style scale (-.22). It was not correlated with the Marlowe- Crowne Social Desirability Scale (.13), Companionate love, and the Storge (.09), Mania (.20) or Pragma (-.01) love style scales.

In regard to gender differences, significantly higher total RBS scores are reported by men compared to women (Sharp & Ganong, 2000; Sprecher & Metts, 1989, 1999; Sprecher & Toro-Morn, 2002). The higher level of romanticism among men is often attributed to socio-economic structures. That is, men can afford to be romantic as a result of their greater economic freedom which allows them to select a mate on the basis of love rather than pragmatic resources (e.g., Dion & Dion, 1985). However, some previous studies revealed no gender differences in the extent of romantic beliefs (Cunningham & Antill, 1981; Simpson, Campbell, & Berscheid, 1986). This may indicate that changes in romantic beliefs over time are similar for both men and women (Sprecher & Metts, 1999), although slightly more resistance was observed among men than women to changing romantic beliefs in response to an educational intervention (Sharp & Ganong, 2000).

Taking into consideration that (a) the ideology of romance is widespread in Western cultures, (b) romantic beliefs may contribute to various aspects of intimate relationships, (c) the Romantic Beliefs Scale is the most widely used instrument to test the romantic ideology of love with good psychometric properties, and (d) in Poland no scale to measure romantic beliefs exists, efforts to adapt the RBS for use by researchers interested in romantic relationships with the Polish culture are warranted. Therefore, the main purpose of the present research was to validate the Polish adaptation of the Romantic Beliefs Scale by testing whether the Polish RSB would replicate the original findings in terms of factor structure and psychometric properties. We expected that the four-dimensional structure of the RBS would be confirmed in the Polish sample, and that it would be a reliable measure of romantic beliefs. Confirmation of these expectations would provide further support for the psychometric integrity of the RBS. In addition, a second purpose of this study was to determine whether the relatively greater endorsement of romantic beliefs by young adult males, compared to females, in the American sample used by Sprecher and Metts (1989) is also evident within a Polish sample of young adults who completed the Polish version of the RBS.

Methods

Participants and Procedure

The sample consisted of 414 university students (227 females; 54.83% and 187 males; 45.17%) in different majors from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland. Participants ranged in age from 19 to 25 years (M=21.14, SD=2.06), and resided in a large Polish city that has a population exceeding 500,000 inhabitants. Two hundred and fifteen students (51.93%) declared being in a romantic relationship at the time of the assessment while 199 students (48.07%) were not. All the respondents were never married, had no children, and were heterosexual.

First the author distributed the measures to the participants across the different courses. The questionnaire package was administered in classrooms to groups of 30 to 60 students at a time and participation was voluntary. An explanation as to the purpose of the study was given as well as the assurance that the information provided would remain anonymous and confidential. The instructions were read aloud. Completing the questionnaire package took approximately 15 minutes.

Measures

The questionnaire package completed by participants was comprised of two instruments, a Demographic questionnaire and the Polish version of the Romantic Beliefs Scale.

Demographic Questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to obtain general descriptive information such as age, gender, and current relationship status.

The Polish Version of the Romantic Beliefs Scale. The adaptation process of the Polish-language version of the RBS was performed in the following three stages: (1) translation of the English-language version of the RBS into Polish, (2) testing the psychometric equivalence of the Polish and English versions of the RBS, and (3) verification of the factor structure, and the concurrent and discriminant validity of the Polish version of the RBS.

To create the Polish version of the RBS, all of the items were translated into Polish by three independent translators who were competent in both written and spoken English and had experience in social and psychological research. The translated forms were reviewed by the first author and a native English speaker, and then compared to each other in terms of the content and clarity of the items. In addition, the Polish form was reviewed by one Polish linguist to assess the appropriateness of the grammatical structure of each item. As a result, the Polish version was created and first applied to a small sample of university students (n=30) who were instructed to indicate any confusing words or sentences. Subjective feedback revealed that some of the items were not clear and comprehensible. The problematic items were evaluated and corrected to ensure that all were understandable. The final Polish version was back-translated into English by three experienced translators.

The back-translation resulted in a version highly similar to the original scale, which was then used in the second phase of the research on a bilingual group of 105 English Philology students from The School of English, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, in Poland. Seventy females and thirty-five males participated in this stage. The mean age of the sample was 21.50 years, ranging from 19 to 24 and a standard deviation of 1.05. The student sample completed both the short form of the English and Polish RBS in a counterbalanced order to ascertain the effectiveness of the translation. In order to minimize item recall, a one-month interval separated the completion of each version. The English version was completed in February 2012, and after an interval of one month, all students completed the Polish version in March 2012. Participating students completed the two questionnaire forms during their classes. The whole procedure lasted about 15 minutes. A series of paired-samples t- tests comparing the two forms at the item and subscale levels revealed no significant differences between the two measures. They were highly correlated: Love Finds a Way, r=.82, p<.01; One and Only, r=.85, p<.01; Idealization, r=.81, p<.05; Love at First Sight, r=.80, p<.01. Therefore, the Polish version of the RBS was judged to be an effective translation of the original scale

Results

Confirmatory Factor Analysis

To examine the adequacy of the four-factor structure that was presented in the original study by Sprecher and Metts (1989), a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was performed for the four-factor structure compared to a one-factor model using Amos version 21. Prior to testing the one- and four-factor models, missing data and multivariate normality were investigated. The preliminary analysis revealed no missing data. The test of multivariate normality for continuous variables (i.e., for RBS subscales) indicated the violation of normality: Skewness = 1.296, z-score= 6.25, p<.05, and kurtosis=25.99, z-score=2.72, p<.05. Therefore, in regard to violation of multivariate normality and consistent with previous research (e.g., Hau & Marsh, 2004) which indicated that in many ways maximum likelihood solutions are robust to violations of multivariate normality, the maximum likelihood estimator was used in the current analysis.

The following standard criteria were used to evaluate the adequacy of the hypothesized and alternative model: chi-square, chi-square/df ratio, the adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI), goodness-of-fit indices (GFI), comparative fit index (CFI), incremental fit index (IFI), normed fit index (NFI), relative fit index (RFI), and the standardized (RMR). It is expected that the value of χ2/df ratio is between 2 and 5 (Marsh & Hocevar, 1985). The AGFI, GFI, CFI, IFI, NFI, and RFI fit indices range from 0 to 1, with values of .90 or higher indicating an adequate fit, a value greater than .95 as a very good model fit (Newsom, 2012; Williams & Holahan, 1994). For the standardized RMR and RMSEA, values below .05 indicate a good fit (Bentler, 1990; Browne & Cudeck, 1993), and values between .08 and .10 represent a mediocre fit (Duru, 2007). Goodness-of-fit indices for the hypothesized and alternative model in the present study are displayed in Table 1.

As shown in Table 1, the fit indices in the study indicated that the four-factor model (Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight) was clearly superior to the one-factor model, and represented an acceptable fit to the data. Consistent with established statistical practices, the higher values for the AGFI, CFI, IFI, and RFI indicate that the four-factor model is a better fit than the one-factor model. In addition, the lower values for the chi-squared test, the RMSEA, and the RMR in the four-factor model indicate a better fit compared to the one-factor model. Thus, the assumed four-factor structure of the Polish version of the RBS was confirmed. Parameter estimates for the four-factor model can be seen in Figure 1.

Psychometric Properties

Reliability. The reliability of the RBS subscales was tested by calculating their internal consistencies. Cronbach's coefficient alpha was obtained for the RBS subscales and for the scale as a whole (see Table 2).

As can be seen in Table 2, the coefficient alpha values for individual subscales, and for the scale as a whole, demonstrated good internal reliability (with the exception of the Love at First Sight subscale) with coefficient alpha levels comparable to those obtained in the original study by Sprecher and Metts (1989).

Means and Standard Deviations. Means and standard deviations for both the Polish version of the RBS items and the Sprecher and Metts (1989) items are presented in Table 3.

As Table 3 indicates, the means for individual items ranged from 2.11 (item 1) to 4.49 (item 15). In the original study by Sprecher and Metts (1989), the means for individual items ranged from 2.61 (item 1) to 5.32 (item 2). Overall, the means and standard deviations for particular items are in general lower than values obtained in the US sample in the original study by Sprecher and Metts (1989) with the exception of items 7 and 8 where mean values are higher in the Polish sample.

In the current study the romantic belief subscale with the highest mean was Love Finds a Way (M=4.03, SD=.64), whereas the Love at First Sight subscale had the lowest mean (M=2.37, SD=.86). For the One and Only subscale, the mean was 2.75 with the standard deviation of 1.13, and for the Idealization subscale, the mean was 3.35 and standard deviation was .84. The low values of standard deviations for the Love Finds a Way and Love at First Sight subscales suggests that the sample utilized in the present study is homogenous regarding the above-mentioned variables. It may be due to the fact that the sample in the current investigation consisted only of relatively homogenous sample of students from one university.

Intercorrelations. To ensure comparability with Sprecher and Metts (1989), the product-moment correlation between the subscales, the item-to-total correlation, and the item-to-subtotal correlation i.e., the correlations of each item with its respective factor (subscale) score were also calculated (see Table 4).

The correlations between the subscales were all significant (two-tailed): Love Finds a Way and One and Only, r=.32, p<.001, Love Finds a Way' and Idealization, r=.51, p<.001, Love Finds a Way and Love at First Sight, r=.20, p<.001, One and Only and Idealization, r=.40, p<.001, One and Only' and Love at first sight, r=.28, p<.001, Idealization and Love at First Sight, r=.22, p<.001.The mean item-to-total correlation was .51, whereas the average of the item-to-subtotal correlation was .72. These values are similar to the original study (.53 and .74, respectively). In general, the values of the item-to-total correlations, and the item- to-subtotal correlation in the Polish sample were lower than in the US sample with some exceptions where the values were higher in the Polish sample (see Table 4).

Gender Differences

Differences between women and men in regard to the four romantic beliefs were examined using Students' t- tests. The results indicated that women and men did not differ on any of the four romantic beliefs: Love Finds a Way, t(412)=-.50, p>.05, Cohen's d=0.06; One and Only, t(412)=1.20, p>.05, Cohen's d=0.12; Idealization, t(412)=.11, p>.05, Cohen's d=0.01; and Love at First Sight, t(274)= -1.22, p>.05, Cohen's d=0.12.

Discussion

The primary purpose of this study was two-fold: to adapt the RBS into Polish, and to examine its factorial structure and psychometric properties. The fact that the RBS is one of the most widely used scale to measure romantic beliefs, and the lack of such a measure in Poland encouraged the authors to adapt the RBS. The presented findings demonstrated that with regard to factor structure, reliability and intercorrelations, the Polish adaptation of the RBS corresponds well with the original English version of the RBS.

An examination of the factor structure showed that the original four-factor structure of the RBS was replicated with Polish respondents in the current study. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the four-factor model (Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization and Love at First Sight) was clearly superior to the one-factor model, and represented an acceptable fit to the data. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that all four factors are similar, and that Polish and American respondents in general conceptualized the components of romantic love in a similar manner. As expected for a model which consists of multiple factors representing dimensions of a broader construct, the four romantic beliefs factors are correlated. Although these correlations range from .40 to .75, they are below the levels that would raise concern about the integrity of the four-factor structure, typically .80-.85 (Brown, 2006, p. 23). At the same time, although all items loaded on the expected factors, two items had relatively low reliability. Item 1, ''I need to know someone for a period of time before I fall in love with him or her,'' did not load well on the Love at First Sight factor (.09) and had the lowest mean for all items in the RBS scale. This item had good reliability in the Sprecher and Metts (1989) test (.67), but also had the lowest mean among the items. It is possible that the wording of this item, which offers the opposite view of Love at First Sight and had to be reverse scored, is a bit more complicated for young adults to process. It may also not call to mind the romantic ideal of love at first sight as directly as the other items in this subscale (Item 6, ''When I find my 'true love' I will probably know it soon after we meet'' and item 12, ''I am likely to fall in love almost immediately if I meet the right person.'' The other item that yielded relatively low reliability was item 2, ''If I were in love with someone, I would commit myself to him or her even if my parents and friends disapproved of the relationship.'' As with item 1, it may be that other items which loaded higher on the Love Finds a Way subscale were interpreted more easily. For example, while item 2 focuses exclusively on relationship disapproval from parents and friends, the other items refer to more general obstacles such as physical distance (item 9, ''If I love someone, I will find a way for use to be together regardless of the opposition to the relationship, physical distance between us, or any other barrier'') and lack of money or career conflict [item 11, ''If a relationship I have was meant to be, any obstacle (e.g. lack of money, physical distance, career conflicts) can be overcome'']. Future research using the RBS scale would benefit from the addition of alternative items to test whether the wording of these two items is problematic or whether the cultural differences between the Polish and the American samples ultimately explain the low reliabilities on the respective subscales.

Furthermore, the mean values for the 15 items constituting the scale are in general lower in the current study than in the original study by Sprecher and Metts (1989). However, without performing some type of equivalence analysis (e.g. DIF), conclusions regarding cross cultural similarities and differences are tenuous. However, the pattern of means and standard deviations in the Polish sample may indicate and confirm the existence of cultural differences in romantic beliefs and attitudes toward romantic love found in previous research (Medora, Larson, Hortaçsu, & Dave, 2002; Simmons, Wehner, & Kay, 2001; Sprecher & Toro- Morn, 2002).

Finally, the obtained results indicating no gender differences in regard to romantic beliefs and romanticism in general were consistent with most prior research in which no gender differences were observed (Cunningham & Antill, 1981; Simpson, Campbell, & Berscheid, 1986; Sprecher & Metts, 1999). This pattern of results, contrary to some previous research showing differences between men and women in regard to romanticism, may reflect changes in educational end economic opportunities for women. These changes may provide women with greater freedom to select a mate based on love (Dion & Dion, 1985) in much the same way that men have traditionally done.

The present study was not without its limitations, which must be noted. The main limitation is the lack of comparison of romantic belief scores to other measures of personality and relationship patterns in order to assess validity as was done in previous research. For example, it would be useful to include measures such as gender-role orientation, love attitudes, love styles, dating history, and current relationship satisfaction in order to replicate previous research findings (e.g., Sprecher & Metts, 1989; Weaver & Ganong, 2004). Secondly, temporal stability (i.e., test-retest reliability) of the RBS subscales exists for the English version and future studies in Poland should assess temporal stability for the Polish adaptation of the RBS. It would also be useful to assess factorial structure and psychometric properties of the Polish version of the RBS using more diverse Polish populations including samples of individuals of different relationship history (i.e., married, divorced, widowed) and older individuals rather than university students.

In conclusion, aside from these limitations, the present study provides evidence that the 15-item version of the Polish adaptation of the Romantic Beliefs Scale (RBS) possesses a factor structure and psychometric properties comparable to the English-language version of RBS. It was shown to be a reliable self-report measure for romantic beliefs within a sample of the Polish population. Additionally, the development of a new Polish measure of romantic beliefs has provided further validation for the RBS, provided evidence in support of the ideology of romanticism in various populations, and indicated the importance of differentiating between the different types of romantic beliefs.

References

References

Baucom, D., & Epstein, N. (1990). Cognitive-behavioral marital therapy. New York, NY: Brunner/Mazel.

Bentler, P. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107, 238-246. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238

Brown, T.A. (2006). Confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Browne, M.W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K.A. Bollen & J.S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models (pp. 136-162). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

Cunningham, J.D., & Antill, J.H. (1981). Love in developing romantic relationships. In S.W. Duck & R. Gilmour (Eds.), Personal relationships 2: Developing personal relationships (pp. 27-51). London and New York: Academic Press.

Dion, K.K., & Dion, K.L. (1985). Personality, gender, and phenomenology of romantic love. In P. Shaver (Ed.), Review of personality and social psychology: Self, situations, and social behavior (Vol. 6, pp. 209-239). Beverley Hills, CA: Sage.

Duru, E. (2007). Re-examination of the psychometric characteristics of the multidimensional scale of perceived social support among Turkish university students. Social Behavior and Personality, 35(4), 443-452.

Hatfield, E., & Rapson, R.L. (1987). Passionate love: New directions in research. In D.H. Jones & D. Perlman (Eds.), Advances in personal relationships (Vol. 1, pp. 109-139). Greenwich, CT: JAI Publishers.

Hau, K.-T., & Marsh, H.W. (2004). The use of item parcels in structural equation modelling: Non-normal data and small sample sizes. British Journal of Mathematical Statistical Psychology, 57, 327-351.

Holland, D., & Eisenhart, M. (1990). Educated in romance. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Jones, J., & Cunningham, J. (1996). Attachment styles and other predictors of relationship satisfaction in dating couples. Personal Relationships, 3, 387-399. doi: 10.1111/j. 1475-6811.1996.tb00123.x

Lantz, H.R., Schmitt, R.L., & Herman, R. (1973). The pre-industrial family in America: A further examination of early magazines. American Journal of Sociology, 79, 566-588.

Marsh, H.W., & Hocevar, D. (1985). Application of confirmatory factor analysis to the study of self-concept: First- and higher-order factor models and their invariance across groups. Psychological Bulletin, 97, 562-582. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.97.3.562

Medora, N.P., Larson, J.H., Hortacsu, N., & Dave, P. (2002). Perceived attitudes towards romanticism: A cross-cultural study of American, Asian-Indian, and Turkish young adults. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 33, 155-178.

Michener, H.A., Delamater, J.D., & Schwartz, S.H. (1986). Social psychology. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

Newsom, J.T. (2012). Some clarifications and recommendations on fit indices. Retrieved from http://www.upa.pdx.edu/IOA/newsom/semclass/ho_fit.pdf

Sharp, E., & Ganong, L. (2000). Raising awareness about marital expectations: Are unrealistic beliefs changed by integrative teaching? Family Relations, 49, 71-76. doi: 10.1111/j.1741-3729.2000.00071.x

Simmons, C.H., Wehner, E.A., & Kay, K.A. (2001). Differences in attitudes toward romantic love of French and American college students. Journal of Social Psychology, 129, 793-799. doi: 10.1080/00224545.1989.9712087

Simpson, J.A., Campbell, B., & Berscheid, E. (1986). The association between romantic love and marriage: Kephart (1967) twice resvisited. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 12, 363-372. doi: 10.1177/0146167286123011

Sprecher, S., & Metts, S. (1989). Development of the Romantic Beliefs Scale and examination of the effects of gender and gender-role orientation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 6, 387-411. doi: 0.1177/0265407589064001

Sprecher, S., & Metts, S. (1999). Romantic beliefs: Their influence on relationships and patterns of change over time. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 16, 834- 851. doi: 10.1177/0265407599166009

Sprecher, S., & Toro-Morn, M. (2002). A study of men and women from different sides of earth to determine if men are from Mars and women are from Venus in their beliefs about love and romantic relationships. Sex Roles, 46, 131-147. doi: 10.1023/A: 1019780801500

Turner, J.S., & Helms, D.B. (1991). Lifespan development (4th ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Weaver, S.E., & Ganong, L.H. (2004). The factor structure of the Romantic Beliefs Scale for African Americans and European Americans. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 21, 171-185.

Williams, L.J., & Holahan, P.J. (1994). Parsimony-based ft indices for multiple-indicator models: Do they work? Structural Equation Modeling, 1(2), 161-189.