Therapist's Assessment of Their Patient's Session-Level Emotional Processes: Validation of the In-Session Patient Affective Reactions Questionnaire–Clinician Form

Abstract

Background: The current study aimed to evaluate a therapist version of the in-Session Patient Affective Reactions Questionnaire (SPARQ). The SPARQ was developed to assess a pattern of emotions, thoughts, and behaviors experienced by a patient toward their therapist during a session. The SPARQ has existed only as a patient self-report measure and has demonstrated promise as a psychotherapy process measure. This study intended to validate a complementary clinician-report version of the questionnaire: the SPARQ-C. Methods: A sample of licensed mental health clinicians (N = 151) completed the SPARQ-C along with other measures. Data analysis involved exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFA). Reliability and convergent and criterion-related validity of the SPARQ-C were also evaluated. Results: The SPARQ-C preserved the two-factor structure: positive affect (k = 4, ω total = 0.84) and negative affect (k = 4, ω total = 0.70), which correlated r = 0.26. CFA using the a priori model two-factor model based on the patient-report version provided the following fit indices: χ2[19] = 26.01, CFI = 0.98; TLI = 0.97, RMSEA = 0.05 (90% CI [0.00, 0.09]), and SRMR = 0.05. The SPARQ-C scales demonstrated convergent and criterion-related validity with measures of other elements of the therapeutic relationship, session outcome, and demographic-clinical variables. Discussion: The SPARQ-C is a reliable measure suitable for both clinical and research purposes. It allows for a nuanced assessment of patients' session-level affective responses towards their therapist from the clinician's perspective.