Development, validities and reliabilities of the Counseling Skills Rating Scale for Psychological Aids Hotline / 中国心理卫生杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To develop the Counseling Skills Rating Scale for Psychological Aids Hotline (CSRSPAH),an instrument to objectively assess the quality of process of counseling or intervention provided by hotline operators,and to test its validities and reliabilities.Methods:A draft of the scale,which consisted of 50 items under 5 dimensions,was designed in line with previous researches and the practice.In pilot study,supervisors at Beijing psychological aids hotline,assessed tape recorded sessions and gave feedbacks on the draft of the scale.The scale had been revised based on the pilot study.Twenty-eight items were deleted,and several items were rephrased.Finally,a scale which consisted of 22 items within 3 dimensions,i.e.counseling process,attitude,and communication skill,was developed.The scoring standards of the scale were also developed.To evaluate the IntraClass Coefficients (ICC) of the CSRSPAH,each of the tape records of 37 callings from 2005 to 2007 were assessed by 7 supervisors independently,using the scale.And the tape records of other 318 callings from 2013 to 2014 were also assessed by supervisors,using the CSRSPAH.The results of the 318 assessed callings were used to test the construct validities with the Confirmative Factor Analysis.The Cronbach a coefficients of the total score and three dimensions,the discriminant indices of every items,and correlations of each items and each dimensions were calculated,based on the 318 assessed callings.Results:One of the items (referral) was deleted due to excessive amount of missing data.Results of cortfirmative factor analysis of the remained 21-item scale revealed that the 3-factor construct structure of the scale was robust.The fitting indices of the confirm factor analysis were,x2/df=675.21/186,CFI =0.92,NNFI =0.91,RMSEA =0.10,SRMR =0.08.The Cronbach α coefficients of the total score,scores of counseling process,attitude,and communication skill,were 0.89,0.68,0.81 and 0.77,respectively.The ICCs of the inter-rater reliabilities of the total score and 3 dimensions of the scale were 0.67,0.59,0.59,and 0.67,respectively.The discriminant indices of all the 21 items ranged from 0.09 to 0.32.The correlation coefficients of scores of each items and scores of 3 dimensions and total scores were greater than 0.30,and reached statistical significance.Conclusion:The validities and reliabilities of the Counseling Skills Rating Scale for Psychological Aids Hotline are acceptable.The scale could be used in assessing the quality of hotline counseling or intervention,and related studies in the future.