When people who are married or cohabiting face stressful life situations, their ability to cope may be associated with two separate dimensions of interpersonal behavior: positive and negative. These behaviors can be assessed with the Couple Resilience Inventory (CRI). It was expected that scales on this instrument would correlate with outcome variables regarding life well-being, stress, and relationship satisfaction. It was also expected that effects for negative behavior would be larger than effects for positive and that the effects might be curvilinear. Study 1 included 325 married or cohabiting people currently experiencing nonmedical major life stressors and Study 2 included 154 married or cohabiting people with current, serious medical conditions. All participants completed an online questionnaire including the CRI along with an alternate measure of couple behavior (to confirm scale validity), a measure of general coping style (to serve as a covariate), and measures of outcome variables regarding well-being, quality of life, perceived stress, and relationship satisfaction. The effects for negative behavior were larger than effects for positive in predicting most outcomes, and many effects were curvilinear. Notably, results remained significant after controlling for general coping style, and scales measuring positive and negative behavior demonstrated comparable levels of validity. (PsycINFO Database Record

The Treatment Adherence Perception Questionnaire (TAPQ) is a new, brief self-report instrument for assessing patient perceptions and attitudes regarding their own adherence to medical treatment plans. It includes 3 distinct scales: Perceived Behavior, Perceived Benefit, and Perceived Burden. In contrast with existing measures, the TAPQ was expected to have a clear factor structure; have good discrimination; and assess distinct types of perception, each of which has different patterns of association with interpersonal, personality, motivational, and emotional variables. Foundational work on the TAPQ (with 891 patients) included 5 quantitative scale development studies and 1 qualitative study. The present report focuses on results from a final validation study using 450 patients recruited via market research panels to complete online questionnaires. This study included a general medical sample and a sample of people with either diabetes or hypertension. A confirmatory factor analysis specifying strict measurement invariance across these groups produced a good fit. Analysis with item-response theory suggested that the scales on the TAPQ provide good discrimination across a wide range of experience levels. The 3 scales on the TAPQ each had distinct patterns of association with criterion variables regarding conscientiousness, health behavior, motivation, affect, type of diagnosis, and interpersonal communication with health-care professionals. These effects could not be explained by another existing measure of adherence or by a measure of response bias. Public Significance StatementMedical patients often fail to follow recommended treatment plans and, consequently, suffer bad health outcomes. To allow researchers to study patient adherence to treatment plans, we developed a questionnaire that assesses how well patients believe they are adhering, how much they think treatment is beneficial, and how much they find it burdensome. Results suggest that each of these components is important for understanding treatment adherence.

The Medical Consultation Experience Questionnaire (MCEQ) is a new, brief self-report instrument that can be used with both adult patients and parents of child patients to assess two dimensions of people's experiences interacting with medical practitioners: Alliance and Confusion. In contrast with existing measures, the MCEQ was expected to provide good discrimination across a full range of experience levels and to assess two distinct dimensions of experience with good factor validity. It was developed in a series of 7 preliminary studies (with 758 participants) and tested in 3 subsequent validation studies, which are the focus of the present report. Study 1 was an Internet sample of 199 parents of child patients, Study 2 was a hospital sample of 173 parents of child surgery patients, and Study 3 was an Internet sample of 204 adult patients. A confirmatory factor analysis specifying strict measurement invariance across the 3 groups produced a good fit. An item response theory analysis suggested that scales on the MCEQ provide good discrimination across a wide range of experience levels. The new scales measuring Alliance and Confusion each had a distinct pattern of convergent validity associations with criterion variables regarding alternate measures of consultation experience, treatment context, and patient-reported perception, behavior, and affect. Results support the validity of the MCEQ and suggest that Alliance and Confusion are two distinct and informative dimensions of medical consultation experience. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Perceived social support is important for numerous health outcomes in people with serious medical conditions; however, previous studies have targeted different assessment contexts (including single people or partnered people reporting on either general or relationship-specific support) and different components of perceived support (including positive and negative interactions and support availability). The present study investigated potential functional differences across these contexts and components. A sample of 340 people with serious medical conditions were recruited via market research panels to complete online questionnaires. The sample included three assessment context groups and participants completed scales assessing three components of perceived support along with criterion variables regarding treatment adherence, affect, coping, and aspects of general psychological functioning. Results suggested a high degree of functional invariance across the different assessment contexts, but important distinctions between the different components of perceived support. Following theoretical expectations, each component explained unique variance in different sets of criterion variables. Results suggest that it is meaningful for researchers to generalize across assessment contexts, but important to distinguish between components of perceived support.

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Externalizing problems are common in children ages 6–14, can have lifelong consequences, and may pose a particular risk when combined with other risk factors and symptoms (like depression and anxiety). Schools are uniquely positioned to assess and address these types of behavioral health concerns, but many school-based assessments do not focus on mental health distress (partially because they often lack the infrastructure for identification, screening, and referral). To address this gap, the Behavioral Health Works program student mental health software system has integrated teacher training, psychometrically strong assessments, feedback, and referral tools. However, this self-report tool for adolescents needed to be adapted for younger children. Thus, a parent-report version was added as well as new scales for better assessing this age group. The present study examines the psychometric properties of the new parent-report attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant/conduct scales within a sample of 440 children referred for school-based assessments. Overall, the new scales demonstrated good structural validity, measurement invariance across most demographic groups, discrimination in item response theory analyses, and evidence of convergent validity and good classification accuracy in relation to a validation battery. These externalizing scales are distinct and precise and show promise for improving the effectiveness of school-based programs for identifying at-risk children.

When people face difficult life situations, close interpersonal interactions that are positive (supportive, warm, and intimate) and negative (critical, withdrawing, and unhelpful) can be assessed with the Interpersonal Resilience Inventory and should be distinct from social support indices (structural support and perceived support schema), associated with stress and well‐being, and salient across different stress contexts. Online participants completed the Interpersonal Resilience Inventory when facing family or financial stressors (n = 327) and the COVID‐19 pandemic (n = 180). Confirmatory factor analysis, discrimination, correlations, and models regressing stress and well‐being on positive and negative interactions indicated that scales are distinct and explain unique variance in stress and well‐being beyond general social support. Results highlight the unique function of perceived interactions. This study expands previous medical and couple‐specific work on perceptions of positive and negative interactions by assessing them across important relationships, in two unique stress contexts (family and financial hardships, and COVID‐19), and after controlling for other types of social support (support schemas and structural support). This work is important for building parsimonious theories of perceived interactions that may be generalizable across relationships and stress contexts and may illuminate social support pathways to well‐being.