Description

The Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ-30) is a 30-item self-report instrument developed from established measures of adult attachment and designed to assess individuals’ characteristic patterns of thoughts, emotions, and expectations within close interpersonal relationships. The instrument is associated with the work of D. W. Griffin and K. Bartholomew and was adapted for the Greek context by V. Daskalou and E. Sygkollitou. Its primary focus is the assessment of the two fundamental dimensions of adult attachment, attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, as well as patterns corresponding to different attachment styles.

The 30 items incorporated into the RSQ were drawn from major instruments in the adult attachment literature, including Hazan and Shaver’s attachment measures, the Relationship Questionnaire (RQ) developed by Bartholomew and Griffin, and the Adult Attachment Scale developed by Collins and Read. Participants indicate the extent to which each statement reflects their own experiences, feelings, and attitudes regarding close relationships using a five-point Likert scale.

Conceptually, attachment anxiety reflects concerns regarding rejection, abandonment, insufficient emotional availability, and the need for reassurance from significant others. Attachment avoidance, in contrast, reflects discomfort with emotional closeness, dependence, and intimacy and a tendency to maintain greater psychological or interpersonal distance within close relationships.

The questionnaire also considers attachment patterns corresponding to Secure, Fearful, Preoccupied, and Dismissive attachment. These patterns provide a broader framework for understanding how individuals approach intimacy, trust, dependence, emotional closeness, and concerns about rejection in their interpersonal relationships.

Data Analysis and Use

The Greek adaptation of the RSQ-30 was administered to a sample of 460 adults aged 18–25 years, with a mean age of approximately 21 years. The sample consisted of 209 men (45.4%) and 251 women (54.6%), primarily recruited from public vocational training institutes in Thessaloniki and Halkidiki and technical educational institutions in Thessaloniki. Participation was voluntary, and questionnaires were completed during class sessions under researcher supervision.

Analysis of RSQ-30 data can focus primarily on the continuous dimensions of attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance. Descriptive statistics such as means and standard deviations can be calculated for these dimensions, while correlations can be used to investigate their associations with psychological and interpersonal variables. Group comparisons and regression analyses may also be employed when attachment characteristics are examined in relation to demographic, psychological, or relational outcomes.

Psychometric analysis of the Greek adaptation included confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). A two-factor solution based on anxiety and avoidance provided an effective framework for structuring the questionnaire. For the avoidance dimension, 8 of the 10 items demonstrated satisfactory factor loadings, while the anxiety items showed loadings broadly comparable with those reported in the original model.

Importantly, the validation findings did not confirm the originally proposed four attachment styles in their initial form. Instead, factor analysis and correlations with anxiety and avoidance suggested four attachment types that differed from those originally proposed by the questionnaire developers. This finding should be considered when researchers decide whether to analyze the RSQ-30 primarily dimensionally or categorically.

Objective

The primary objective of the Relationship Scales Questionnaire (RSQ-30) is to assess individual differences in attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance within close interpersonal relationships. The instrument also provides information relevant to the examination of secure, fearful, preoccupied, and dismissive attachment patterns.

Through these dimensions, the RSQ-30 can contribute to a more detailed understanding of how individuals experience emotional intimacy, dependence, interpersonal trust, rejection concerns, and psychological closeness. It is therefore applicable to research in personality psychology, social psychology, counseling, relationship research, developmental psychology, and studies of adult attachment and interpersonal functioning.

Scoring

Each of the 30 items is answered using a five-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 = Strongly Disagree to 5 = Strongly Agree. Intermediate responses correspond to Slightly Disagree, Neutral, and Somewhat Agree.

Scores for attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and the attachment-style categories are calculated using the mean score of the items associated with the corresponding dimension or category. Higher mean scores indicate a stronger presence of the attachment characteristics represented by the respective dimension. Interpretation should consider the psychometric findings of the specific version used, particularly the stronger empirical support reported for the dimensional anxiety–avoidance structure.

Reliability

The Greek adaptation demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency for attachment anxiety, with a reliability coefficient of 0.83. Internal reliability for the avoidance dimension was 0.60. Reliability coefficients for the four attachment-style scores ranged from 0.53 to 0.74, indicating variability in internal consistency across the categorical attachment measures.

Validity

Confirmatory factor analysis provided support for a two-dimensional structure based on attachment anxiety and avoidance. The avoidance dimension demonstrated satisfactory loadings for most of its items, while the anxiety dimension showed a pattern broadly consistent with the original theoretical model. However, the proposed four-style categorical structure was not fully replicated, emphasizing the importance of considering the anxiety and avoidance dimensions when interpreting results from this adaptation.

References

Griffin, D., & Bartholomew, K. (1994). Models of the Self and Other: Fundamental Dimensions Underlying Measures of Adult Attachment. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67(3), 430–445.

Kurdek, L. A. (2002). On Being Insecure About the Assessment of Attachment Styles. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19(6), 811–834.