Triangular Love Scale, Short Form (Sumter, Valkenburg, & Peter, 2013)

• Populations: Adolescents, Adults
• Age ranges: 12-88
• Languages: Dutch, English
• Countries: Netherlands

Items

Filter question (Sumter, Valkenburg, & Peter, 2013)
We recommend to include the following filter question. Please describe your current relationship status?
a. I am currently dating, married or in a stable relationship - Go to version 1
b. I currently don’t have a partner, but I have dated, been married or had a stable relationship - Go to version 2
c. I have never dated nor been in a stable relationship - Go to version 3

Version 1 - in romantic relationship
Adolescents are asked to think about the person they are currently dating or are in a relationship with. Adult are asked to think about their (marital) partner.

Passion

• I feel a strong attraction to my partner.
• I feel sexually aroused by my partner.
• I find my partner sexually attractive.
• My partner and I clearly show each other our love.

Intimacy

• My partner and I always tell each other personal things.
• I tell my partner everything.
• My partner and I tell each other all our secrets.
• My partner understands how I feel.

Commitment

• I want my relationship to be neverending.
• I never want to have another partner.
• I want the relationship with my partner to last forever.
• I am rather with my partner than with anyone else.

Version 2 - with romantic relationship experience, but currently not involved
Adolescents are asked to think about their former girlfriend or boyfriend. Adults are asked to think about their former (marriage) partner.

Passion

• I felt strongly attracted to my partner.
• I felt sexually aroused by my partner.
• I found my partner sexually attractive.
• My partner and I clearly showed each other our love.

Intimacy

• My partner and I always told each other personal things.
• I told my partner everything.
• My partner and I told each other all our secrets.
• My partner understood how I felt.

Commitment

• I wanted my relationship to be neverending.
• I never wanted to have another partner
• I wanted the relationship with my partner to last forever.
• I was rather with my partner than with anyone else.

Version 3 - with no romantic relationship experience
Adolescents are asked to think about a future girlfriend/boyfriend. Adults are asked to think about a future (marriage)partner.

Passion

• I want to feel strongly attracted to my partner.
• I want to feel sexually aroused by my partner.
• I want to find my partner sexually attractive.
• My partner and I will clearly show each other our love.

Intimacy

• My partner and I always will tell each other personal things.
• I will tell my partner everything.
• My partner and I will tell each other all our secrets.
• My partner will understand how I feel.

Commitment

• I would want my relationship to be never-ending.
• I would never want to have another partner. I would want the relationship with my partner to last forever.
• I would rather be with my partner than with anyone else. 

Responses

Items used a 5 part ordinal response format: very true, true, partly true/partly untrue, untrue, very untrue

Scoring

Responses to the 12 items ranged from 1 (very untrue) to 5 (very true)

Citations

• Sumter, S. R., Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2013). Perceptions of love across the lifespan: Differences in passion, intimacy, and commitment. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 37(5), 417-427. https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025413492486
• Overbeek, G., Ha, T., Scholte, R., de Kemp, R., & Engels, R. (2007). Brief report: Intimacy, passion, and commitment in romantic relationships – Validation of a ‘triangular love scale’ for adolescents. Journal of Adolescence, 30, 523–528.

Team comments

This measure is reported with multiple versions to be administered based on the romantic experience of participants.