Date of Award

4-19-2010

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling Psychology & Community Services

First Advisor

Kara Wettersten

Abstract

The characteristics of healthy relationships are an important area of study that have received increasing amounts of attention in recent years. John Gottman has developed a theory of healthy relationships that includes constructs relating to conflict management and everyday interactions. Most researchers (including Gottman) focus on relational health in the context of marriage. While the dynamics in a marriage are certainly important to study, including the examination of the relational quality of other dyads (e.g. dating partners, friends, siblings) provides an opportunity to better understand how people relate to the closest person in their life, regardless of relationship status. This study involves the initial development and validation of a scale (Relational Health Scale) assessing individuals' relational skills and attitudes based on Gottman's theory. The results of this study provided evidence that the RHS is internally reliable and consists of two scales: the Skills Scale and Attitudes Scale. Within the Skills Scale, there were two subscales (Conflict Management and Everyday Interactions), and the Conflict Management subscale consisted of three subfactors: Aggressive Engagement, Effective Engagement, and Physiological Reactions. Additionally, the RHS exhibited convergent validity as it related to relationship satisfaction and interpersonal competency. These results support the usefulness of the RHS for both research and clinical purposes; it is a tool that can be used to facilitate healthy relationships and prevent those that could potentially be unhealthy.

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