Looking Back to Understand the Present: Reliability and Validity of Retrospective Relationship Satisfaction Timelines

Abstract The aim of this study was to investigate the reliability and concurrent validity of retrospective graphical timelines of couple relationship satisfaction development (RSR timelines). Relationship satisfaction is a central indicator of couple and family functioning. In clinical and research settings, obtaining a comprehensive overview of relationship histories can be challenging due to the complexity of couple dynamics. RSR timelines offer a time-efficient method to capture relationship histories, e.g., in the context of couple- and family-based interventions. A total of 271 German families were followed up for 18 years after a preventive intervention. At the 18-year follow-up (FU18), mothers were asked to draw RSR timelines for their relationship with the father of the index child. Based on these timelines, six distinct relationship history groups were reliably distinguished: Stable Satisfied (25% of couples), Crisis Managed (23%), Dissatisfied (4%), Separated (40%), Separation by Death (5%), and parents who never had a relationship (3%). The RSR scores showed moderate to strong correspondence with prospectively collected relationship satisfaction ratings. Relationship history groups were associated with several concurrent relationship, individual, and offspring outcomes, with some associations with offspring functioning differing by child sex. RSR timelines showed preliminary evidence of reliability and validity and may have potential as a time-efficient method for capturing relationship histories. Future research should examine their clinical utility in the context of couple- and family-based interventions.