Measuring Irrational Beliefs about Marital Relationships: Standardization of Relationship Believes Questionnaire (RBQ)

this study aimed to standardize the Relationship Be- liefs Questionnaire (RBQ; Romance & DeBord, 1995) and to investigate irrational beliefs about marital relation- ships in an Iranian population. Data provided by 535 marr- ied Iranian participants (244 males and 291 females), com- pleting the RBQ, resulted in omitting 13 items due to low item total correlation and factor loadings. Cronbach's alpha for the remaining 58 items scale and test-retest reliability were 0.95 and 0.93 respectively. The result of explanatory factor analysis using oblique rotation method showed that the scale included seven factors, including expectations to: a) be perfect in a marital relationship, b) be interdepen- dent, c) have monogamous relations, d) be devoted, e) be rational and open to each other, f) read each other’s mind, and g) be aware of each others past thoughts, feelings and needs. The extracted factors confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis. A positive correlation (r = 0.32, P < 0.01) between RBQ and the Irrational Beliefs Test (Jones, 1968) supported the convergent validity. No university educated participants showed more irrational beliefs than did more educated participants. There were no gender or age differences in irrational beliefs about marital relationships. The length of marriage and number of children also were not correlated to such irrational beliefs. The standardized scores of RBQ measures are presented.