Assessing linkages between interpersonal processes and anxiety disorders.
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abstract
Growing evidence has affirmed the co-occurrence of interpersonal difficulties and anxiety disorders in both adults and youth. These linkages almost certainly reflect bidirectional and recursive influences. That is, evidence has suggested that relationship problems frequently contribute to, maintain, and exacerbate the subjective experience of both generalized and situational anxiety; similarly, both covert and behavioral expressions of anxiety frequently contribute to difficulties in developing and sustaining close relationships. Hence, for many individuals, intervention will be rendered less effective unless difficulties in both interpersonal and intrapersonal functioning are appropriately evaluated and addressed. Similarly, from a research perspective, theoretical developments and conceptual linkages between individual and relationship functioning will be constrained without valid assessment of both domains. Whether from clinical or research perspectives, understanding and disentangling recursive influences of anxiety and interpersonal processes requires psychometrically sound assessment techniques for evaluating both. In this chapter, we begin with an overview of methodological issues relevant to clinical interview, self-report, and observational assessment strategies. We then consider these issues first as applied to assessment of interpersonal processes and then as relevant to assessing the spectrum of anxiety-related disorders. Within each domain, we consider specific techniques relevant to adults and then those germane to children and adolescents, as well as cross-generational measures where appropriate (e.g., when examining parentchild relationship processes). Our review emphasizes principles and broad strategies of assessment rather than an exhaustive review of measurement techniques in this area. Specific assessment techniques are offered as exemplars within various domains and have been selected on the basis of evidence of psychometric soundness as well as their inclusion in research summarized in the subsequent chapters in this text. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)
