Development and Initial Validation of a Brief, Transdiagnostic Measure of Conflict Resolution Difficulties and Ineffective Relational Strategies

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Abstract
Considerable research in recent decades has focused on developing measures assessing transdiagnostic dimensions, including measures that target dimensional symptoms rather than traditional diagnostic categories. Furthermore, a sizeable literature has focused on assessing social-cognitive vulnerabilities (e.g., experiential avoidance) thought to be linked to an array of symptoms and functioning difficulties, and a range of measures of transdiagnostic, social-cognitive vulnerabilities have been developed. However, few of them include item content directly assessing conflict resolution difficulties and ineffective interpersonal relational strategies, which also are linked to a range of psychopathology and are targeted in cognitive-behavioral and third-wave treatments. We address this gap in the transdiagnostic assessment literature by presenting initial validation data for a measure of ineffective interpersonal strategies across three studies and four samples of participants (N = 301 adults; N = 808 adults self-identifying a mental health diagnosis; N = 368 undergraduate students; N = 226 community adults). Analyses based on these samples spanned evaluation of participant perspectives on item face validity, quantitative examinations of internal structure, test-retest stability, and evaluating validity associations with a range of self-report and interview measures. Results collectively support the initial validation of an efficient interpersonal measure, the Transdiagnostic Ineffective Relational Strategies Scale (TIRSS), which can be incorporated into a range of study formats due to its brevity. We discuss future validation steps to build from this work, as well as ideas for sharpening interpersonal and transdiagnostic assessment research more broadly.