Valida？？o de escalas para avalia？？o do amor patológico

background: several methodologies were developed to validate psychometric instruments. however, there are, in the scientific literature, a lack of instruments to evaluate romantic relationship. objective: the present work aims at validating into portuguese the content of the self-report love attitudes scale (escala de atitudes do amor - hendrick et al., 1998), the relationship assessment scale (escala de avalia？？o do relacionamento - hendrick, 1988), and the adult attachment types (tipos de apego do adulto - hazan et al., 1987), taking the brazilian cultural context into consideration, thus rendering the study of pathological love in the brazilian population feasible. methods: such process involved four stages: (1) translation into portuguese, (2) back translation, (3) presentation of the translated version to mental health professionals and university students, and (4) application of the final version in a sample of the target population using a rating scale. results: the scales were easily understood and significantly discriminated individuals with pathological love and healthy volunteers. discussion: our results show that the brazilian version of these instruments is valid and may be used in investigations involving romantic relationships.