The Divorced Marital Relationship Questionnaire

About the questionnaire

During the divorce interview, ex-husbands and wives were instructed to think back to the two months before they seriously talked of getting a divorce; they then responded to the Braiker and Kelley (1979) relationship scales with that time frame in mind. These scales measured love, ambivalence, conflict, and maintenance. The scales are described in detail in the Courtship section of this manual. Conflict is reflected in the amount of overt conflict and negativity the spouses report in the relationship. Ordinarily, individuals who report high levels of conflict will also report high levels of negativity. Maintenance is defined as the extent to which the spouses communicate about problems in their relationship and work to improve it. Love was defined in terms of feelings of belonging, closeness, and attachment. Ambivalence was conceived in terms of feelings of confusion concerning the partner and the future of the relationship.

The love scale consisted of ten items, with each item having 9 options representing different degrees of endorsing the item. Thus, scores on the love scale could range from 10 to 90. The other scales consisted of 5 items each, with each item also having 9 choices. Thus, scores on the other three scales could range from 5 to 45.

Finding the data

Scores for maintenance, conflict, ambivalence, and love can be found on the divorced data packet cover sheet.

Interpreting

Compare the couple's scores to those in the first three phases. Did the scores follow a trend? Why or why not? Also compare the ex-spouses' scores to each other. Do the scores help indicate who was the initiator in the breakup? Do the scores tend to fit with a general pattern in the rest of the data, or is there an anomaly?

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Divorced Table of Contents