The Brazilian-adapted Working Alliance Inventory: preliminary report on the psychometric properties of the original and short revised versions

Abstract

Introduction: Alliance is an essential component of all psychotherapies and a consistent predictor of its outcomes. The Working Alliance Inventory (WAI) is a widely used and psychometrically sound measure of alliance. It assesses three key aspects of the construct: a) agreement on the tasks of therapy; b) agreement on the therapeutic goals; and c) development of an affective bond. Objective: To preliminarily analyze the psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of both the original, 36-item WAI, and of the short form revised, 16-item version (WAI-SR). Methods: The sample comprised 201 psychodynamic psychotherapy patients. Alliance assessments were made after the 4th treatment session. Results: The inventory adapted to Brazilian Portuguese, in both the original and short forms, appears to be reliable and valid to measure alliance and its dimensions by clients in psychotherapy. Further studies are needed to replicate and expand the findings.

Processo da aliança terapêutica em um caso bem-sucedido de psicoterapia psicodinâmica on-line para ansiedade

“…O WAI-SR é composto por 12 itens, com três subescalas de 4 itens que representam cada dimensão da AT. A versão Brasileira do instrumento tem indícios de validade fatorial e alfas de 0,65 na dimensão vínculo, 0,84 em tarefas, de 0,86 nos objetivos e de 0,88 no total (Serralta et al, 2020).…”

“…Atualmente, o conceito operacionalizado por Bordin é o mais adotado nas pesquisas em psicoterapia, pois abrange uma perspectiva transteórica que contempla aspectos de vinculação da dupla e do tratamento psicoterápico em três dimensões que integram as perspectivas de Zetzel e Greenson, sendo a AT constituída por um acordo, implícito ou explícito, sobre os objetivos e as tarefas do tratamento, bem como pelo vínculo de confiança e apego entre terapeuta e paciente (Bordin, 1979;Oliveira & Benetti, 2015;Serralta et al, 2020). Assim, destaca-se que um desajuste entre um destes três domínios é indicativo de uma ruptura na AT e poderia prejudicar o progresso psicoterápico (Safran & Kraus, 2014).…”

Evidence of validity of the revised Helping Alliance Questionnaire based on the internal structure in a Brazilian clinical sample

“…However, the authors only analysed the patient version of the instrument, and the study sample was small (n = 83) and composed of health professionals as patients undergoing therapy (Marcolino & Iacoponi, 2001). Recently, Serralta et al (2020) analysed preliminary psychometric properties of the patient-rated WAI and its revised short form in a Brazilian sample showing high reliability for both of them. Also, a few years ago, Araújo and Lopes (2015) Of all instruments that measure TA, the HAq and its revised version are the second among the most used instruments worldwide (Fluckiger et al, 2018).…”