The Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a New Mating Effort Questionnaire.
In this study, we review the psychometric literature on mating effort and find that extant instruments (1) have not been adequately evaluated in terms of internal structure and measurement invariance, and (2) disproportionately focus on mate retention and intrasexual competition tactics designed to repel competitors, relative to attraction and investment effort. To address these gaps in the literature, we carried out two studies to develop and validate a new Mating Effort Questionnaire (MEQ). In Study 1, we report a pilot study in which participants' responses to an item pool were submitted to exploratory factor analysis. In Study 2, we replicated the structure found in Study 1 using confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample. A three-factor solution yielded the best fit. The three factors reflected respondents' allocation of energy to attracting high mate value partners when already mated, seeking out romantic partners when single, and investing in their current romantic partner and relationships. Strong partial measurement invariance held across the sexes, implying that observed scores may be used to compare them. We also found evidence of concurrent validity via associations between the MEQ and constructs such as sociosexual orientation, K-factor, mate retention behaviors, and respondents' sexual behavior. These findings suggest that the MEQ is a valid and novel measure of individual differences in mating effort which is well suited to complement existing mating effort measures.
['Albert|Graham|G|0000-0002-5866-7479', 'Richardson|George B|GB|', 'Arnocky|Steven|S|', 'Senveli|Zeynep|Z|', 'Hodges-Simeon|Carolyn R|CR|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D003380:Courtship D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical D005260:Female D005783:Gender Identity D006801:Humans D007389:Internal-External Control D008297:Male D010865:Pilot Projects D011594:Psychometrics D012649:Self Concept D012725:Sexual Behavior D012747:Sexual Partners D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
Mating effort Measurement Human mating Life history