Development and psychometric evaluation of the Birmingham Relationship Continuity Measure for acquired brain injury

ABSTRACT

Objective

Relationship continuity/discontinuity

refers to whether a spouse/partner experiences their current relationship with someone with an acquired brain injury (ABI) as a continuation of their loving pre-injury relationship or as radically changed. The aim of this study was to adapt a questionnaire measure of continuity/discontinuity from dementia research for use in an ABI context and to evaluate the psychometric properties of this adaptation.

Method

The questionnaire was adapted in response to feedback from a focus group of ABI caregivers. Its psychometric properties were then evaluated in two studies involving partners of people with ABI.

Results

The measure showed high internal consistency (alpha = .956 in Study 1 and .963 in Study 2), test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation = .960 in Study 1) and discriminative power (Ferguson’s delta = .975 in Study 1 and .963 in Study 2). Evidence of construct validity was provided by a predicted pattern of correlations with other relationship questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis suggested that the questionnaire is unidimensional.

Discussion

A valid and reliable quantitative measure of relationship continuity/discontinuity will enable more robust evaluation of suggestions about this construct that have been made in qualitative studies (e.g. that discontinuity is associated with a greater sense of caregiver burden).

KEYWORDS:

• Acquired brain injury
• marital relations
• family caregivers
• psychometrics
• relationship continuity

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflict of interest.