The validity of the Group Questionnaire: Construct clarity or construct drift?

Abstract

The Validity of the Group Questionnaire: Construct Clarity or Construct Drift? Stephen D. Thayer Department of Psychology, BYU Doctor of Philosophy The Group Questionnaire (GQ) is a recently developed measure of the quality of the therapeutic relationship in group treatment. Its 3 subscales—Positive Bonding Relationship, Positive Working Relationship, and Negative Relationship—are taken from a 3-factor conceptualization of the group therapeutic relationship (Johnson et al., 2005). The purpose of the present study was to estimate the GQ’s construct and criterion-related validity by 1) replicating the aforementioned factor structure with a similar sample and by 2) correlating the GQ with the measures from which is was derived (i.e., Working Alliance Inventory, Burns Empathy Scale, Therapeutic Factors Inventory, Group Climate Questionnaire) and to 3) explore the GQ’s ability to measure relationship quality at member-member, member-leader, and member-group structural relationship levels using a sociometric test. Two hundred and ninety participants were recruited from 65 treatment groups at 4 university counseling centers and 1 community mental health clinic. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) fit indexes from both singleand multiple-level analyses met standards for acceptable model fit. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) suggested the GQ is sensitive to group level processes. Therefore, the Johnson et al. (2005) 3-factor model was successfully replicated and the GQ’s construct validity supported. Pearson product-moment (r) and Spearman’s rank (ρ) correlation coefficients were sufficiently high to lend support for the GQ’s criterion-related validity. Sociometric exploration yielded moderate support for the GQ’s ability to access the structural parameters of group therapeutic relationships. The present study’s findings suggest the GQ is an empirically valid, clinically useful measure of the quality of the group therapeutic relationship.