The spouse situation inventory: A role-play measure of coping skills in women with alcoholic partners

This article reports on the psychometric evaluation of the Spouse Situation Inventory (SSI), a role-play measure of coping skills in women with alcoholic partners. The study examined the generalizability, alternate form reliability, test-retest reliability, and construct validity of the measure in 472 women from both treatment and nontreatment populations. The SSI had acceptable generalizability and reliability. SSI performance also had predicted relationships with measures of general escape coping, alcohol-related coping behaviors, the woman's drinking, the partner's drinking in the treatment group, and the partner's problem recognition in the nontreatment group. The SSI shows promise as a reliable and valid measure of coping skills in this population and has direct implications for development and evaluation of skill training programs.