Validation of the Cooper–Norcross Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP) in Chinese lay clients and mental health professionals: Factor structure, measurement invariance, and scale differences.

Abstract

The Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP) is one of the most widely used measures of psychotherapy preferences. However, its psychometric properties have not been examined in non-Western samples. Research on disparities between the preferences of mental health professionals and their clients is also limited. We evaluated the C-NIP's psychometric properties and measurement invariance in Chinese lay clients and mental health professionals and evaluated the latent mean differences between clients' and professionals' scores on the C-NIP's four scales (preference for therapist vs. client directiveness, emotional intensity vs. emotional reserve, past vs. present orientation, and warm support vs. focused challenge). This cross-sectional investigation involved 301 lay clients and 856 mental health professionals who completed the Chinese version of the C-NIP. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) were used to examine the factor structure of the C-NIP. ESEM provided stronger evidence than CFA for the four-factor model in both samples. The four scales had adequate internal consistency in both the lay clients (αs = .68-.89) and the mental health professionals (αs = .70-.80). Partial scalar invariance was established across these two populations. Chinese mental health professionals preferred less therapist directiveness, past orientation, and warm support-but more emotional intensitythan Chinese lay clients (ds = 0.25-0.90). Culture-specific cutoff values (norms) to identify strong therapy preferences were established. This study supports the application of the C-NIP to non-Western populations and suggests that discrepancies between the preferences of lay clients and mental health professionals are a cross-cultural phenomenon. Public Significance StatementThis study confirms the factor structure and measurement invariance of the Cooper-Norcross Inventory of Preferences (C-NIP) in Chinese psychotherapy populations. The study further reveals systematic differences between lay clients' and mental health professionals' treatment preferences in the Chinese clinical context. These disparities suggest that professionals should be cautious in projecting their therapy preferences onto their clients.

Assessing perceptions of stigmatization by others for seeking help in China: psychometric characteristics and measurement invariance across gender and therapy experience

“…Consistent with prior work (She et al, 2023b), we tested three models with increasing constraints to assess configural, metric, and scalar invariance. In one set of analyses, the results for men were compared to those for women; in the other set, the results for participants who had been in therapy were compared to those who had not.…”