An evaluation of the German relationship assessment scale

The Relationship Assessment Scale (RAS) is a short seven-item measure for the assessment of relationship satisfaction. It can be used with different types of relationships. We aimed to investigate the psychometric properties of the German version of the RAS in a community sample of N = 145 persons. The principal component analysis revealed one general factor, which accounted for more than 60 per cent of the variance. The internal consistency of the RAS was high (α = .89). While there were no significant associations between RAS scores and age or gender, several other sociodemographic parameters had an impact on the RAS, e. g. presence of children. The RAS correlated significantly with scales of the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), most impressively with the DAS satisfaction scale (r = .87). Persons living in a distressing relationship, as indicated by a DAS total score below 100, also had lower scores on the RAS. In conclusion, our results extend the evidence on the reliability and validity of the RAS.