Development and Validation of the Limerence Questionnaire (LQ-11)

Limerence is an overwhelming and debilitating experience involving the intense and often obsessive attachment towards a person who becomes the limerent object, which when left unharnessed, typically results in negative outcomes. At present, there are no published measures to assess the construct of limerence. To address this gap, we developed a short self-report measure to measure limerence (The Limerence Questionnaire-11; LQ-11). This paper reports two studies with data from two different samples (Study 1, n = 269; Study 2, n = 401) of participants that had experienced or were currently experiencing limerence. Results from the exploratory factor analysis revealed a two-factor structure comprising of ‘Intense Need for Attachment’ and ‘Neglect to Self and Others’ (Study 1). Confirmatory Factor Analysis subsequently confirmed a two-factor structure with excellent internal reliability (Study 2). Results demonstrated that the LQ-11 had good concurrent, convergent and discriminant validity. The LQ-11 is an easily administrable questionnaire for potential use in both interpersonal research domains and in clinical and therapeutic settings.