Communication Patterns Questionnaire

Several past studies demonstrated that poor or destructive communication patterns between couples might lead to sexual dissatisfaction, poor decision-making, violent behavior, and depression. In contrast, constructive communication could improve several marital functions—sexual intimacy, reduced conflict, better adjustment, and marital satisfaction. (Crenshaw et al., Psychol Assess 29:1–13, 2017) developed the Communication Pattern Questionnaire (CPQ), which includes 23 items divided into three subscales: constructive communication, self-demand/partner withdraw, and partner-demand/self-withdraw. These subscales measure how couples deal with their relationship problems. Although the CPQ is widely used in research, its psychometric properties have not been tested in Indian cultural contexts. Given the need for cultural validation of the CPQ, we validated the Tamil version of the CPQ (CPQ-T) in the present study using a sample of 340 heterosexual couples in India. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a12-item, three-factor solution fits the data well (χ2 (51) = 240.68; CFI = 0.910; RMSEA = 0.074; SRMR = .050). Measurement invariance analysis using multi-group analysis indicated that the factor structure, item loadings, item means, and residual variances were invariant across husbands and wives. CPQ-T showed a moderate association with dyadic coping and dyadic adjustment, demonstrating its convergent validity. The alpha coefficients were found to be 0.81 for husbands and 0.80 for wives. We conclude that CPQ-T could be readily used among Indian couples.