Objective: Relationship partners' impacts on health are not fully captured by existing measures. A measure that applies to a prevention context and accounts for both partners' perspectives is needed. This work developed and assessed the psychometric properties of the novel Partner Investment in Health scale (PI-H).
Design: A cross-sectional design assessed participants (N = 261) using an online survey. Exploratory factor analyses were used to determine the PI-H factor structure.
Main outcome measures: Items assessed the person's investment in their partner's health and their perception of their partner's investment in their health.
Results: A 2 factor structure underlying 24 items on the PI-H scale was supported. Factors represented 1) the respondent's investment and 2) the respondent's perception of their partner's investment. The PI-H significantly correlated with related measures (e.g. relationship satisfaction, dyadic and communal coping; p < .05).
Conclusion: A full PI-H scale, two subscales, and a short version of the scale (8 items) are presented. Correlations demonstrated convergent validity and suggested the PI-H is distinct from existing constructs. Theoretical implications and applications are discussed.
Keywords: Scale development; couples; dyad; health; prevention; social cognitive theory.