AccScience Publishing / JCBP / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/jcbp.3625
ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE

Reliability and validity of the Interpersonal Relationship Rating Scale in a Chinese population

Xiao Yuan1,2 Yueqiu Zhao3 Yuqun Zhang4 Wenhao Jiang2 Yonggui Yuan2*
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1 Department of Medical Humanities, College of Humanities, Southeast University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
2 Department of Psychosomatics and Psychiatry, Zhongda Hospital, School of Medicine, Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Brain Science and Medicine, Southeast University, Nanjing, 210009, China
3 Nanjing Health Branch, Jiangsu Union Technical Institute, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
4 Department Nursing, School of Nursing, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
Submitted: 9 May 2024 | Accepted: 3 September 2024 | Published: 13 November 2024
© 2024 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Interpersonal relationships are of great significance to individuals, as positive relationships contribute to enhanced life satisfaction and mental health. To develop an effective scale for assessing interpersonal relationships, the Interpersonal Relationship Rating Scale was developed, and its reliability and validity were examined in a Chinese population. The initial items for the scale were formed through a literature search, clinical investigation, and expert interviews. A total of 461 valid responses were collected through the Questionnaire Star platform for exploratory factor analysis, leading to the extraction and naming of common factors. In addition, an offline questionnaire survey was conducted at a secondary vocational school in Nanjing, yielding 882 valid responses. Confirmatory factor analysis was performed using Mplus 8.0 to assess the model fit. The comprehensive evaluation of the scale confirmed its reliability and validity. The Interpersonal Relationship Rating Scale was ultimately divided into four dimensions. Validated factor analyses indicated a well-fitted model (χ²/df = 7.59, Comparative Fit Index = 0.860, Tucker–Lewis Index = 0.838, and root mean square error of approximation = 0.086). The scale demonstrated good internal consistency reliability, with an alpha coefficient of 0.903 and dimension-specific coefficients ranging from 0.674 to 0.909. Test–retest reliability for the total scale was 0.401, and for the dimensions, it ranged from 0.269 to 0.381 (P < 0.01). The scale also exhibited strong construct validity, criterion-related validity, and discriminant validity (P < 0.01). Overall, the Interpersonal Relationship Rating Scale is a reliable and valid tool for assessing interpersonal relationships in the Chinese population.

Keywords
Interpersonal relationships
Scale development
Reliability
Validity
Funding
This study was funded by the Jiangsu Provincial Key Research and Development Program (BE2019748), which supported participant recruitment and data collection.
Conflict of interest
Yonggui Yuan and Wenhao Jiang are the Editor-in-Chief and Associate Editor of the journal, respectively, but were not involved in any way, directly or indirectly, in the editorial and peer-review process of this paper. Separately, the other authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have influenced the work reported in this paper.
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Journal of Clinical and Basic Psychosomatics, Electronic ISSN: 2972-4414 Print ISSN: 3060-8562, Published by AccScience Publishing