Assessing the Quality of Personal Relationships

We report two studies investigating the psychometric properties and construct validity of the Quality of Relationships Inventory (QRI), a self-report measure of support, conflict, and depth in specific family and peer relationships. Study 1 showed that the QRI scales possess high internal consistency, are stable across a period of 1 year, show moderate agreement between participants' perceptions of the same relationship, and predict depressive symptoms beyond the contribution made by measures of general perceived support. In Study 2, adult children's and their mothers' QRI scales assessing the quality of their relationship with one another, but not with other family members or friends, predicted observers' global judgements of their behavior as they discussed a current source of conflict in their relationship. These studies suggest the reliability and construct validity of the QRI scales as measures of the quality of specific relationships. The implications of these results for the conceptualization and assessment of personal relationships are discussed.