A Short Version of the Authenticity in Relationships Scale: Psychometric Verification in Russian Culture

Objective. Psychometric validation of the Russian-language short version of the Authenticity in Relationships Scale (AIRS), which allows you to assess the degree of authenticity in various contexts: partners, parents, friends and colleagues.
Background. The basis of close relationships as an absolute value for different cultures is honest self-presentation, which contributes to a person’s psychological well-being and increases satisfaction with communication. Authentic relationships include unacceptability of deception and intimate risk taking. In authentic relationships, there should be no desire to produce and maintain ideas about oneself and one’s partner that do not correspond to reality. They also imply a desire for more open, close communication, i.e., revealing one’s real self to another person. To measure this quality, the Authenticity in Relationships Scale was developed in the USA and GB, which has not yet been subjected to systematic psychometric testing, although there are no analogues to this instrument in Russia, which determined the relevance of this study. Study design. Standard psychometric validation of the methodology was carried out for each of the four contexts: partners, parents, friends, colleagues. The Cronbach coefficient alpha was analyzed on the full sample of respondents; half of the respondents’ answers were selected for exploratory factor analysis, the other half for confirmatory factor analysis.
Participants. The study involved 449 respondents aged 18 to 60 years (10% male, 90% female; average age – 27 years (min = 17, max = 60)). The study participants are Russian–speaking citizens of the Russian Federation, representatives of different professions.
Measurements. The main method was a short version of the Authenticity in Relationships Scale, which included 10 statements for each context. Data were collected online using the 1ka.si service. Jamovi (v. 2.3.21.0) was used for data processing.
Results. The scale is applicable only to the context of a romantic relationship. For other contexts, the original model has not been confirmed.
Conclusions. The methodology can be applied in research and in psychological counseling to study the authenticity level of romantic relationships. The scale's applicability to other social contexts requires further testing.

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