Helpful Test Links for Couples Researchers

Wachs Couple Alliance Scale (WCAS; Wachs & Cordova)
The WCAS is an 11-item measure of the degree to which partners feel they are allies in the pursuit of relationship health. Couples scoring high on this measure report that they are joined together in attending to their marital health.

Collaboration Scale (C-Scale; Cordova & Morrill)
The C-Scale is a 9-item measure of the frequency of collaboration between partners. It measures the degree to which partners feel they work well together toward common goals, solve problems well together, and work well together as a team.

The Intimate Safety Questionnaire (ISQ; Cordova & Blair)
The ISQ is a 28-item measure of the degree to which partners feel safe being vulnerable with each other across several different domains of the relationship (Emotional Safety, Sexual Safety, Safety Disagreeing, Safety Being Yourself, and Safety in Public). Based on Cordova’s theory of intimate safety as a developmental process, the ISQ has been found to be conceptually and measurably distinct from traditional measures of intimacy and trust.

The Relationship Acceptance Questionnaire (RAQ; Cordova & Wachs)
The RAQ is a 26-item measure of the degree to which the respondent feels accepted “warts and all” by his or her partner. It also measure the degree to which the respondent reports accepting his/her partner, faults and mistakes included. The RAQ is designed to measure the type of relational acceptance likely to change as a result of current acceptance-based couples interventions.

The Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help – Marital Therapy Questionnaire (ASPPH-MT; Cordova)Adapted from the original Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Help measure (Fischer & Turner, 1970), the ASPPH-MT is a 28-item measure of a person’s positive versus negative attitude toward seeking professional help with his/her marital health. Negative attitudes reflect a sense that professional relationship help is ineffective, expensive, shameful, or pointless. Positive attitudes reflect a sense that professional relationship help is useful, worthwhile, appropriate, and normal.

The Relationship Help Seeking Measure (RHSM; Cordova)
The RHSM is an 11-item measure of the degree to which the respondent engaged in relationship help seeking over the previous two-weeks (time scale can be varied). It includes seeking help online, through books, friends/family, clergy, therapy, etc. It also measure degree of helpfulness and amount of time spent involved with each type of help.

The Couples Stages of Change Questionnaire (C-SCQ; Dorian & Cordova)
Adapted from the Stages of Change Questionnaire (McConnaughy, Prochaska, & Velicer, 1983), the C-SCQ is a 32-item measure of four theoretically consecutive stages of change (pre-contemplative, contemplative, action, and maintenance). It is primarily used in the MC as a measure of activation (the action subscale), but can be used to measure change across the stages.

The Marriage Checkup Treatment Rationale Questionnaire (MC-TRQ; Cordova)
The MC-TRQ is a 7-item measure of the degree to which the respondent thinks of his/her marriage in marital health terms. It measures the belief that marital health is similar to physical, dental, and child health. It also measures the belief that marital health checkups are valuable and that regular maintenance is necessary to maintain marital health.

Helpful Links for Couples Researchers

 www.abct.org
The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies.

 www.psychologicalscience.org
The Association for Psychological Science

www.abct.org/mentalhealth/journals/tbt
The Behavior Therapist

www.couplessig.net     
Couples Research and Therapy SIG of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior and Cognitive Therapies.

www.apa.org/journals/fam
Journal of Family Psychology

www.aamft.org/jmft/index_main.asp
Journal of Marital & Family Therapy

www.apa.org/journals/psp
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology

www.nimh.nih.gov
National Institute of Mental Health

www.nichd.nih.gov
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development