Relationship quality

Relationship quality refers to the perceived quality of a close relationship (i.e., romantic relationship, friendship, or family).

Relationship quality (sometimes used interchangeably with relationship satisfaction, relationship flourishing, or relationship happiness), in the context of close interpersonal relationships is generally defined as a reflection of a couple’s overall feelings towards their relationship. More simply, it is the extent to which members in a relationship (romantic or otherwise) view their relationship as positive or negative.

The determinant of relationship quality is often a variety of self-reported evaluations of traits that make up relationship quality. For instance, feelings of closeness may be measured via questions that ask an individual to rate the extent to which they identify with statements. I.e., “I feel close to my partner”, “I am comfortable sharing personal thoughts and feelings with my partner”, etc. These questions are typically asked on a Likert scale and the average of those scores represents an individual's feelings of closeness toward their partner. Some scales are considered unidimensional and attempt to directly measure the construct of relationship quality. Other scales, considered multidimensional, repeat this process for other hypothesized components (e.g., closeness and satisfaction) before aggregating dimensions into a representative “relationship quality” score.

Historically, relationship quality has been the most commonly studied in the context of intimate romantic relationships. More recently, the study of relationship quality has extended to include other types of close relationships (see: friendships, family, sibling, parent). However, it must be noted that there is not always agreement among scholars about what domains should be included in the measurement of relationship quality, even within the different types of close relationships. Despite this, relationship quality and its predictors have been of popular interest to relationship scholars due to the range of psychological and relational outcomes that high quality relationships have been positively linked and associated with.