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

This article describes a basic multimethod relationship assessment procedure used by the authors in their recent investigations to evaluate the relationship adjustment of married or cohabiting drug-abusing patients and their intimate partners. The components of the assessment include (a) semistructured clinical interviewing; (b) a battery of paper-and-pencil self-report inventories; and (c) observations of partners engaging in a conflict resolution discussion, coded using a standardized rating system. The essential features of the relationship assessment procedure (i.e., brevity, breadth, depth, and use of psychometrically sound measures) would allow this method to be used routinely in nonresearch settings that treat substance-abusing patients. A case example is provided to illustrate the use of these relationship assessment methods with a drug-abusing couple.