_______________ Jill M. Chonody, Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, IN. Mike Killian, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, The University of Texas at Arlington. Jacqui Gabb, Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keyes, UK. Priscilla Dunk-West, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Studies, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia. Copyright © 2016 Authors Vol. 17 No. 2 (Fall 2016), 355-368, DOI:10.18060/21155 Understanding Everyday Relationship Work: The Development of a Relationship Maintenance Scale Jill M. Chonody Mike Killian Jacqui Gabb Priscilla Dunk-West Abstract: Relationship maintenance behaviors contribute to the longevity of intimate relationships, yet existing scales are limited. Available measurement tools are primarily constrained to the Relationship Maintenance Strategy Measure (RMSM) and its further revisions. Covering a number of domains, conceptual overlap with other aspects of an intimate relationship (e.g., household division of labor) may exist. Our cross-sectional exploratory study included participants from 60 countries (n=8,162) who completed an online survey. Participants were diverse in their relationship status, age, sexual orientation, and race/ethnicity. From their responses, we developed a parsimonious and brief measure of relationship maintenance (8 items) through exploratory and then confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that the Relationship Maintenance Scale (RMS) shows initial evidence of reliability and validity. The RMS may have utility in working with couples and families. Future research should seek to re-test its use with varied samples, such as couples seeking relationship support. Keywords: Relationship maintenance; scale development; psychometrics; couple relationship Despite the way that intimate relationships have been shaped and redefined over time and the loosening of social pressure to legally marry, most adults spend some or nearly all of their lives in a romantic couple relationship. According to a recent report by the Pew Research Center, 53% of adults living in the United States were living with a romantic partner, with 47% being married to that individual (Lenhart & Duggan, 2014). In Europe, marriage rates are somewhat lower as young adults opt to live together without marriage. An exception is the UK, where married couples head up seven in ten households with recent figures showing an increase in legal unions that equates to one marriage every two minutes (ONS, 2014). In the first five years of civil partnerships in the UK (December 2005–2010), over 46,000 same-sex partnerships had been registered (ONS, 2011). Understanding these relationships is important as an enduring relationship can support personal well-being and overall health (Kiecolt- Glaser & Newton, 2001) and reduce the risk of depression (Walker, Isherwood, Burton, Kitwe-Magambo, & Luszcz, 2013). Whether the couple is married or in a committed relationship without marriage, dissolution of the coupledom is a chief social concern and may be viewed as a public health issue given its impact on individuals and children. Dissolution can have an adverse effect on adults’ mental and physical health (Coleman & Glenn, 2009), and children of divorce have lower scores on well-being than children living in intact families (Amato & Keith, 1991; Garriga & Kiernan, 2013). A major cause of family breakdown is poor relationship quality (Relationships Alliance, 2014), which is, therefore, an important