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The therapeutic factor inventory-8: Using item response theory to create a brief scale for continuous process
Giorgio A Tasca1, Christine Cabrera2, Elizabeth Kristjansson2
1a Department of Psychology , The Ottawa Hospital - General Campus , Ottawa , ON , Canada.
Objective:
We tested a very brief version of the 23-item Therapeutic Factors Inventory-Short Form (TFI-S), and describe the use of Item Response Theory (IRT) for the purpose of developing short and reliable scales for group psychotherapy.
Method:
Group therapy patients (N = 578) completed the TFI-S on one occasion, and their data were used for the IRT analysis. Of those, 304 completed the TFI-S and other measures on more than one occasion to assess sensitivity to change, concurrent, and predictive validity of the brief version.
Results:
Results suggest that the new TFI-8 is a brief, reliable, and valid measure of a higher-order group therapeutic factor.
Conclusion:
The TFI-8 may be used for continuous process measurement and feedback to improve the functioning of therapy groups.
