Measuring Trait-Level Overcontrol: Does the Measurement Fit the Theory?

Radically Open Dialectical Behavior Therapy (RO-DBT) was developed to target overcontrolled coping style and is gaining traction as a gold-standard treatment in the transdiagnostic intervention repertoire. The RO-DBT manual offers two instruments that explicitly measure overcontrol: the Adult Styles of Coping Word-Pair Checklist (ASC-WP) and the Overcontrol Trait Rating Scale (OCTRS). There is virtually no psychometric information about these measures, and they have not been examined through a construct validity framework. A sample of 482 undergraduates, oversampled for overcontrolled coping style, completed these measures via self-report. Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFAs) did not display one-factor solutions of these instruments, suggesting that a strictly unidimensional representation of these measures was not supported. When considerations of interpretability were paired with quantitative support for exploratory factor analyses, obvious factor structures did not form and were not easily reconciled with theory. However, the OCTRS factor structure was stronger than that of the ASC-WP. Nomological network analyses of the measures revealed that in general, the OCTRS evidenced promising convergent validity and weak discriminant validity, while the ASC-WP demonstrated globally weak construct validity. Taken together, these results suggest that refining the measurement of overcontrol is crucial, and use of the ASC-WP measure warrants particular caution.