Ethical and competent professional counselors are needed to provide quality counseling services to the public. Counselor educators and supervisors have the responsibility of training competent counselors. Furthermore, counselors and counselors-in-training have the responsibility of continually assessing their own development and implementing measures to increase their competency. Assessment instruments have sought to measure counseling competencies through evaluating counseling skills. However, a paucity of research exists that examines counseling competencies in a comprehensive manner using a psychometrically sound approach. Therefore, a need exists for a psychometrically sound assessment instrument that measures the construct of counseling competencies in a holistic manner. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Counseling Competencies Scale© (CCS; UCF Counselor Education Faculty, 2009), an instrument designed to measure counseling competencies, within the areas of counseling skills, professional dispositions, and professional behaviors. The sample included 81 counseling practicum students and 21 counseling practicum supervisors from two graduate counselor education programs at public institutions accredited by the Council for Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) within the United States (one program in the southeast and another in the northwest). The practicum supervisors evaluated the counseling competencies of the counseling practicum students per the CCS at the semester midpoint and conclusion. Additionally, the counseling practicum students evaluated their own counseling competencies per the CCS at the semester midpoint and conclusion. Furthermore, the counseling practicum students and supervisors both iv completed a demographic questionnaire developed by the researcher. The data analysis procedures employed to test the research hypotheses were: (a) factor analysis, (b) Pearson product-moment correlation (two-tailed), and (c) Cronbach‟s alpha. The exploratory factor analyses yielded five midterm CCS factors ([a] Factor 1: Assessment and Application, [b] Factor 2: Professional Behaviors and Dispositions, [c] Factor 3: Beginning Counseling Skills, [d] Factor 4: Advanced Counseling Skills, [e] Factor 5: Directive Counseling Skills) and four final CCS factors ([a] Factor 1: Professional Dispositions and Behaviors, [b] Factor 2: Counseling Skills, [c] Factor 3: Assessment and Application, [d] Factor 4: Growth). Additionally, the CCS exhibited strong internal consistency reliability for both the individual factors and the overall models. The interrater reliability among raters yielded a low correlation (Skills [r = .436], Dispositions [r = .515], Behaviors [r = .467], and Total [r = .570]). Furthermore, an assessment of criterion-related validity yielded a high correlation (r = .407) between the final total score on the CCS and the students‟ final grade in the counseling practicum course. The results of the statistical analyses support the development of the CCS, a promising assessment instrument for evaluating counseling competencies within counselors-in-training. Through the further development of the CCS, counselor educators and supervisors will have a sound method for assessing their students‟ levels of counseling competencies and learning outcomes. Additionally, the CCS may support counselor educators and supervisions in their ethical and legal responsibilities as teachers, evaluators, and gatekeepers for the counseling profession. Furthermore, the CCS offers counselors-in-training a tool to assist them in understanding and developing their level of comprehensive counseling competencies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-2546 |
| Date | 01 January 2010 |
| Creators | Swank, Jacqueline Melissa |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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