Measuring relational maintenance in marriage: Theoretical and methodological issues

Personal, Moral, and Structural Commitment and the Repair of Marital Relationships

“…Past research (Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004) found variations in relational-maintenance factors based on gender, with men and women differing in terms of which factors were relevant for them. Additionally, gender differences have been noted in a number of studies of relational-maintenance strategies (Canary & Stafford, 1992;Ragsdale, 1996;Stafford et al, 2000).…”

“…Second, Johnson et al used a relatively small sample (N ¼ 187), and we were curious to learn whether or not a somewhat larger sample would yield different results. The most important of our reasons, however, was that factor analysis often yields both different components and item compositions even in samples of the same population, as we have shown in the relational-maintenance research literature (Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004, 2005.…”

“…414). In practical terms, it has been our experience (Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004) that EFA also explains substantially more of the error variance than does PCA.…”

“…Because previous research has shown the underlying factors of the relational-maintenance construct to be correlated, we chose an oblique rotation (PROMAX). The majority of research in this area has used principal components, rather than exploratory, factor analysis, but this practice has disadvantages that may have contributed to inconsistent findings (Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004). The principal disadvantage to principal components analysis (PCA) is that it combines common and unique variance (Wegener & Fabrigar, 2000).…”

Could Relational Maintenance in Marriage Really Be Like Grocery Shopping? A Reply to Stafford and Canary

“…Our Southern Communication Journal (SCJ; Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004) article elaborated this issue in greater detail. Our Southern Communication Journal (SCJ; Ragsdale & Brandau-Brown, 2004) article elaborated this issue in greater detail.…”