Procedures for evaluating the dyadic adjustment of drug-abusing patients and their intimate partners - A multimethod assessment approach

This article describes a basic multimethod relationship assessment procedur e used by the authors in their recent investigations to evaluate the relati onship adjustment of married or cohabiting drug-abusing patients and their intimate partners. The components of the assessment include (a) semistructu red clinical interviewing; (b) a battery of paper-and-pencil self-report in ventories; and (c) observations of partners engaging in a conflict resoluti on discussion, coded using a standardized rating system. The essential feat ures of the relationship assessment procedure (Le., brevity, breadth, depth , and use of psychometrically sound measures) would allow this method to be used routinely in nonresearch settings that treat substance-abusing patien ts. A case example is provided to illustrate the use of these relationship assessment methods with a drug-abusing couple. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science In c.