Social Dating Goals Scale (Sanderson & Cantor, 1995)

• Populations: Adolescents
• Age ranges: Age not provided, participants described as "High School Students"
• Languages: English
• Countries: United States

Items

Item Stem: 

In my dating relationships, I try to

• Maintain a strong sense of independence
• Share my most intimate thoughts and feelings
• Take care of my girl/boyfriend(s)
• Date those who make my life more comfortable and stable
• Date people with whom I might fall in love
• Keep my individual identity
• Consider my girl/boyfriend(s) my best friend(s)
• Spend a substantial amount of time with my girl/boyfriend(s)
• Consistently date someone
• Determine what I want in a future relationship
• Focus on possible future plans with my boy/girlfriend(s)
• Date those whom I can count on
• Maintain a focus on my other life goals

Responses 

Items used a 5 point Liker-type scale, 

• 1 = Disagree Strongly
• 2 = Disagree Somewhat
• 3 = Neutral
• 4 = Agree Somewhat
• 5 = Agree Strongly

Scoring

“the final version of the Social Dating Goals Scale (see Appendix) consists of 13 items, with each item rated on a 1 to 5 scale (1 = disagree strongly and 5 = agree strongly). Each item begins “In my dating relationships, I try to . . .” in order to specify that these goals are pursued in social dating (as opposed to in other domains, such as making and maintaining friendships) and that participants are at least attempting to fulfill these goals (regardless of their success in achieving them). This continuous scale is positively keyed to greater intimacy: items assessing identity goals (1,6, 10, 13) are reverse scored and then summed with the items assessing intimacy goals” (Sanderson & Cantor, 1995)

Citations

Sanderson, C. A., & Cantor, N. (1995). Social dating goals in late adolescence: Implications for safer sexual activity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(6), 1121-1134. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.68.6.1121