Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022;46(6):1157-1169.
doi: 10.1007/s10608-022-10318-9. Epub 2022 Jul 19.

How do close others to those with anxiety feel about treatment? Development and validation of the Treatment Concerns Questionnaire-Close Others

Olivia A Merritt  1 , Karen Rowa  2   3 , Christine L Purdon  1
Affiliations

How do close others to those with anxiety feel about treatment? Development and validation of the Treatment Concerns Questionnaire-Close Others

Olivia A Merritt et al. Cognit Ther Res. 2022.

Abstract

Background: The close others (e.g., family members, romantic partners) of people with anxiety and related disorders are typically involved in their treatment decisions. However, we know little about close others' attitudes towards and concerns about their loved one starting cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT).

Methods: Study one surveyed close others of those with anxiety and related disorders (n = 33) about their concerns about their loved one starting CBT. Thematic coding was completed, and items were developed to reflect these themes, comprising a measure of treatment concerns in close others. Study two involved the administration of the novel measure to a larger sample (n = 287) to evaluate its structure, reliability, and validity.

Results: Close others endorsed having treatment concerns of moderate intensity. The final 17-item measure, the Treatment Concerns Questionnaire-Close Others (TCQ-C), has a robust four-factor structure, with internally consistent subscales including "Adverse Reactions", "Personal/Family Consequences", "Lack of Commitment", and "Ineffectiveness". The measure shows moderate correlations with treatment expectations (convergent validity) and small correlations with respondent distress (discriminant validity).

Conclusions: The value of this measure for clinicians and future directions for research are discussed.

Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10608-022-10318-9.

Keywords: Anxiety and related disorders; Family; Psychometric evaluation; Social context; Therapy; Treatment ambivalence.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

DeclarationsThe authors have no known conflicts of interest that are relevant to the content of this article. This work was supported by Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada [Insight Grant 118049]. This research has been reviewed and received ethics clearance through a University of Waterloo Research Ethics Committee (#40041 and #41835) and informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

    1. Antony MM, Bieling PJ, Cox BJ, Enns MW, Swinson RP. Psychometric properties of the 42-item and 21-item versions of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales in clinical groups and a community sample. Psychological assessment. 1998;10(2):176. doi: 10.1037/1040-3590.10.2.176. - DOI
    1. Barrowclough C, Hooley JM. Attributions and expressed emotion: A review. Clinical psychology review. 2003;23(6):849–880. doi: 10.1016/S0272-7358(03)00075-8. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bentley JW. Improving the statistical power and reliability of research using Amazon Mechanical Turk. Accounting Horizons. 2021;35(4):45–62. doi: 10.2308/HORIZONS-18-052. - DOI
    1. Berger I, Dor T, Nevo Y, Goldzweig G. Attitudes toward attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) treatment: parents’ and children’s perspectives. Journal of child neurology. 2008;23(9):1036–1042. doi: 10.1177/0883073808317726. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Berk M, Parker G. The elephant on the couch: side-effects of psychotherapy. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 2009;43(9):787–794. doi: 10.1080/00048670903107559. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources