Evaluation of Romantic Jealousy: Psychometric Study of the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale for the Portuguese Population

Aim: The presence of jealousy in romantic relationships is a timeless reality, but it is underexplored. Pfeiffer and Wong (1989) propose a view of jealousy as a multidimensional construct, compounding cognitive, emotional and behavioural domains. The authors created the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale. This research aimed at adapting and validating the scale for the Portuguese population. Method: 1169 participants took part in the study, 474 male and 695 female, over 18 years. Together with the Multidimensional Jealousy Scale a socio-demographic questionnaire was applied, in order to characterize the study’s participants. Results: The Cronbach's alpha values registered were 0.87 regarding emotional jealousy; 0.92 for cognitive jealousy; and 0.90 concerning behavioural jealousy. The Cronbach's alpha for the total scale (Portuguese version) was 0.86. Conclusion: The scale showed good psychometric characteristics, with a factorial structure composed of three factors.