RELATE: Relationship evaluation of the individual, family, cultural, and couple contexts

The purpose of this article is to present the conceptual model underlying R ELATE, a relationship evaluation instrument, and to describe how this instr ument can be used by instructors, clinicians, and therapists. The RELATE mo del contains measures of the 4 primary contexts of a couple's experience: t he individual, the family, the culture, and the couple. The model includes some of the primary variables in Gottman's marital cascade and has been eva luated for reliability and validity. Examples of how to use the instrument and model are illustrated for couples, educators, and clinicians.