Development of a brief measure of attitudes towards polyamory

Abstract

Due to its increasing popularity as a relationship style, empirical research on polyamory and its practitioners has flourished over the past decade. More recently, researchers are beginning to explore others’ attitudes towards polyamory. To support future work in this area, we created a 7-item measure of attitudes towards polyamory and validated it in three samples. Sample 1 used 100 US adults to create the initial version of the Attitudes Towards Polyamory (ATP) Scale. In Sample 2, the responses of 134 US college students were used to revise the scale and to obtain evidence for construct validity and test–retest reliability. Sample 3 employed 196 US adults to confirm the factor structure of the scale and to further establish convergent and divergent validity. As expected, participants who held more traditional beliefs (such as favourable attitudes towards monogamy, politically conservative beliefs and fundamentalist religious beliefs) were more likely to have negative attitudes towards polyamory, whereas participants exhibiting thrill-seeking attitudes and behaviours were more likely to have positive attitudes towards polyamory. Our results indicate that the ATP Scale is a brief, reliable and valid measure that can be used in future research to assess people’s attitudes towards the polyamorous relationship orientation.

Keywords:

• polyamory
• nonmonogamy
• measure
• attitudes
• scale
• relationships

Acknowledgement

We thank Erin Crockett, Abby Riggs and Alan Swinkels for their feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.

Notes

1. Caution should be used in generalising from this figure, which is an estimate based on a non-representative American sample.

2. Of the 154 participants who completed Wave 1, 20 did not complete Wave 2. Analyses confirmed that there were no significant differences (all ts < 1.05, ps > .29) on any of the validation measures (political conservatism, religious fundamentalism, attitude towards monogamy, right-wing authoritarianism, emotional jealousy, self-esteem or social desirability) between participants who dropped out and participants who completed both waves.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by funding from the Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston, to the second author, as part of the John H. Duncan Chair.

Notes on contributors

Sarah M. Johnson

Sarah M. Johnson ([email protected]) earned a BA in psychology and Spanish from Southwestern University in 2013. She currently lives in Hartford, CT, USA, and is a Master of Social Work candidate at the University of Connecticut, where she is specialising in policy practice and international social work.

Traci A. Giuliano

Traci A. Giuliano ([email protected]), professor of psychology, has been a member of the Southwestern University faculty since 1994. She earned her BA in Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA and Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles.

Jordan R. Herselman

Jordan R. Herselman ([email protected]) obtained her BA in psychology from Southwestern University in 2013. She currently lives in Littleton, Colorado, USA, and is earning her MA in Counselling at Denver Seminary.

Kevin T. Hutzler

Kevin T. Hutzler ([email protected]) earned a BA in economics and psychology from Southwestern University in 2013. He currently lives in Dallas, TX, USA, and works as an analyst for The Richards Group, the largest independently owned marketing and advertising firm in the United States.