Conflict Resolution Styles in Gay, Lesbian, Heterosexual Nonparent, and Heterosexual Parent Couples

Preliminary psychometric data are presented for two inventories that assess conflict in couples. The Ineffective Arguing Inventory (IAI) is a self-report measure that assesses a dysfunctional style of couple conflict resolution. The Conflict Resolution Style Inventory (CRSI) has complementary self-report and partner-report versions that assess four personal conflict resolution styles for each member of the couple. Subjects were both partners of 75 gay, 51 lesbian, 108 married non-parent, and 99 married parent couples. Findings for each inventory are presented regarding the factor structure of items, the internal consistency of composite scores, the 1-year stability of composite scores, the relation between couple members' composite scores, and the link between composite scores and relationship satisfaction, change in satisfaction, and relationship dissolution. Generally, results warrant further examination of the IAI and CRSI as measures of conflict for couples. All couples have to deal with conflict. Further, how that conflict is managed is linked to relationship satisfaction, change in relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability (Gottman, 1994; Heavey, Layne, Markman, Renick, Floyd, Stanley, Noller Snyder, 1981), self-report measures of individual conflict resolution styles (e.g., the Marital Coping Inventory, Bowman, 1990), and self-report and partner-report measures of each partner's conflict resolution styles (e.g., the Interpersonal Communication Skills Inventory; Boyd Christensen, 1988). However, no measure of couple conflict resolution could be found that was brief, was based on a coherent conceptual framework, and had comprehensively documented psychometric properties. Documenting psychometric properties include validating the measure against the major relationship outcomes used in behavioral observations in this area of study--relationship satisfaction, change in relationship satisfaction, and relationship stability (Gottman, 1994; Gottman Markman et al., 1993). Accordingly, the purpose of this article is to present such preliminary psychometric data for two brief nonobservational measures of couple conflict. The first measure--the Ineffective Arguing Inventory (IAI)--assesses how the couple handles conflict, whereas the second measure the Conflict Resolution Styles Inventory (CRSI)--assesses each partner's individual style of handling conflict. …