Interpersonal problems across anxiety, depression, and eating disorders: a transdiagnostic examination

Integrative models of psychopathology suggest that quality of interpersonal relationships is a key determinant of psychological well-being. However, there is a relative paucity of research evaluating the association between interpersonal problems and psychopathology within cognitive behavioural therapy. Partly, this may be due to lack of brief, well-validated, and easily interpretable measures of interpersonal problems that can be used within clinical settings. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the psychometric properties, factor invariance, and external validity of the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems 32 (IIP-32) across anxiety, depression, and eating disorders.

Two treatment-seeking samples with principal anxiety and depressive disorders (AD sample, n = 504) and eating disorders (ED sample, n = 339) completed the IIP-32 along with measures of anxiety, depression, and eating disorder symptoms, as well as quality of life (QoL).

The previously established eight-factor structure of the IIP-32 provided the best fit for both the AD and ED groups, and was robustly invariant across the two samples. The IIP-32 also demonstrated excellent external validity against well-validated measures of anxiety, depression, and eating disorder symptoms, as well as QoL.

The IIP-32 provides a clinically useful measure of interpersonal problems across emotional and ED.