Emotion work—behaviours that enhance a partner’s emotional well-being—is central to couples’ relational well-being. The Partner Emotion Work Scale (PEW) is a well-established measure of perceived emotion work, but no Portuguese version exists and its validity has not been examined dyadically. This study translated, culturally adapted, and validated the PEW for use in Portugal in a sample of romantic couples, while also exploring its factor structure. Data from 155 dyads were used to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Portuguese PEW in both self-referred and hetero-referred versions. Factor analyses supported a three-factor model for each version: Emotional Support, Intimate Communication, and Companionship (Supportive and Affectionate). These dimensions represent complementary aspects of emotion work in couples; however, differences between self- and partner-reports suggest that emotion work is perspective dependent. The Portuguese PEW showed strong psychometric properties, including content validity and expected associations with other variables. All subscales demonstrated good internal consistency and adequate temporal stability across a two-week interval. Overall, results support the Portuguese PEW as a reliable and valid instrument for assessing emotion work in romantic relationships from both self and partner perspectives.
Moreira et al. (Tue,) studied this question.