Adaptation of communication styles inventory to Russian context

Abstract

Communication style refers to the distinct ways individuals exhibit verbal, paraverbal, and nonverbal communication patterns in social interactions. It involves receiving, interpreting, and delivering feedback and messages. Factors like culture and personality affect communication styles, and tools like communication styles inventory (CSI) help evaluate and improve individuals’ communication skills. Cultural differences significantly impact communication styles, so it’s important to adapt and validate measurement instruments for diverse cultural settings, such as adapting CSI for the Russian context. This study aims to adapt CSI for use in the Russian context. The research follows a quantitative approach, collecting data from 407 undergraduate and graduate students across different universities. CSI is a questionnaire assessing six distinct communication patterns with 96 items. The researchers conducted exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to examine CSI’s validity and reliability in the Russian context. The analyses yielded an eight-factor model explaining 59.5% of the total variance. Although two factors from the original scale were preserved, other factors were newly named. The confirmatory factor analysis tested the relationship between the original sub-dimensions and the new dimensions, resulting in a better-adapted model with significant relationships between items and factors. The findings indicate the scale’s suitability for different cultures and sample groups, supporting its validity and reliability. Further research should adapt the scale to other cultures and utilize it in studies in the Russian context.