Finally, the “shaky relationship” scale, which is originally part of the Marital Instability Index developed by Booth et al. (1983), measures the strength of the relationship with the respondents’ intimate partner. It also reflects their perception of whether or not their intimate relationship was in trouble. The scale was constructed using three response categories ranging from “often” (coded as 3) to “never” (coded as 1) (alpha=.85 for mothers; .81 for fathers). Because it is tapping into relationship weakness rather than relationship strength, unlike the relationship quality and couple commitment scales, the shaky relationship scale should be positively related to contact with the criminal justice system. Our factor analyses of data indicated that these variables loaded on their corresponding factors.