Interpersonal Resilience Inventory: Assessing positive and negative interactions during hardships and COVID‐19

Abstract

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.

How sociocultural contexts may shape the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on couples' relationships

“…These findings were similar across White versus non‐White participants (the small sample size prevented a comparison of specific racial/ethnic groups within the non‐White category). Similarly, another study of 180 individuals (51.1% African American), collected in the US from May to July 2020 (Rivers & Sanford, 2021), found no differences between Black and White participants in perceived stress, anxiety related to COVID‐19, well‐being, reported frequency of positive and negative interactions with significant others, or perceived support.…”

A descriptive literature review of early research on COVID-19 and close relationships

“…Resilience was also associated with fewer negative parent-child interactions and less anxiety and depression in Chinese students who moved home due to COVID-19 ( Cui & Hong, 2021 ). Rivers and Sanford (2020) accordingly developed the Interpersonal Resilience Inventory and advocated for its use during the pandemic to capture the resiliency aspect, a unique component from other social support measures, that is central to navigating challenges of a long-term crisis such as the pandemic. Here, resilience is an adaptive relational process impacted by multiple enduring individual vulnerabilities such as emotional health and uncertainty ( Pietromonaco & Overall, 2021 ).…”

Resilience communication mitigates the negative relational effects of topic avoidance: Evidence from parental caregiving and COVID‐19 pandemic contexts

“…In their review of literature on COVID-19 and personal relationships, Bevan et al (2023) indicated that resilience was diminished during the early stages of the pandemic but when enacted was important for mental and relational health. Resilience-building interactions similar to those proposed by CTR diminished stress and improved well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic (Rivers & Sanford, 2021). Balzarini et al (2023) found that, at the start of the pandemic, partner responsiveness (including communicating value, care, and understanding-elements of resilience communication) mitigated the negative effects of COVID-19-related stressors on relationship satisfaction.…”