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Spanish Adaptation of the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S)

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Abstract

The goal of our research was to adapt the short forms of the Working Alliance Inventory into the Spanish language for patients and therapists (WAI-S-P and WAI-S-T). The psychometric properties of scores from these measurement instruments were evaluated in Spanish outpatients with depressive disorders and their therapists. The scores of both measures exhibited excellent reliability in terms of internal consistency and excellent convergent validity. Their discriminant validity exhibited some limitations, particularly when the scores of both short measures correlated with those of two empathy measures. Regarding predictive validity, the scores of the overall WAI-S-P and WAI-S-T significantly correlated with residual gain scores of patients in the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) after the tenth psychotherapy session. Additionally, the overall WAI-S-T scores explained a moderate percentage of the variance in patient BDI score changes. These results are satisfactory and similar to those found in the studies that have utilized the respective original versions of WAI-S in English.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the patients and therapists from several Spanish public health centers for participating in this study. We thank Professor Adam O. Horvath of Simon Fraser University (Canada) for providing the short versions of the WAI. We also thank the linguists from the University of Alcalá’s School of Writing (Spain) and the mathematicians from the Statistical Consultancy Unit at the University of Oviedo (Spain) for their assistance. Finally, we thank biologist Lourdes Fernández-Casas for her help carrying out this research.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Relational Processes and Psychotherapy Research Group, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcalá, Campus Universitario, Carretera Madrid-Barcelona Km. 33,600, 28871, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Nelson Andrade-González

  2. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, University of Alcalá, Alcalá de Henares, Madrid, Spain

    Alberto Fernández-Liria

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  1. Nelson Andrade-González
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Correspondence to Nelson Andrade-González.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

ᅟ Items in Spanish-language WAI-S-P
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Appendix 2

ᅟ Items in Spanish-language WAI-S-T
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Andrade-González, N., Fernández-Liria, A. Spanish Adaptation of the Working Alliance Inventory-Short (WAI-S). Curr Psychol 35, 169–177 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-015-9365-3

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