Development and validation of the felt safeness in the therapeutic relationship questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: To develop and evaluate the Felt Safeness in the Therapeutic Relationship Questionnaire (FSTRQ), a novel measure of someone's sense of social safeness within the therapeutic relationship. METHOD: 226 participants completed online questionnaires including FSTRQ and measures of overall social safeness, therapeutic alliance, positive/negative affect and worry. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) examined the fit of the study data to a hypothesised one-factor structure. Reliability statistics were calculated, and correlational analyses were used to explore convergent and discriminant validity. RESULTS: The CFA showed an adequate model fit of the one-factor structure to the data from the FSTRQ. Cronbach's alpha for the measure was 0.96. Convergent and divergent validity were supported by strong correlations with the questionnaire related to therapeutic alliance, moderate correlations to the SSPS and positive affect subscale and no correlations with negative affect and worry. CONCLUSION: This study showed good validity and reliability of the FSTRQ as a unique measure of felt safeness in the therapeutic relationship.