DOI
https://doi.org/10.25772/CMAK-C873
Defense Date
2019
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Clinical Psychology
First Advisor
Bryce McLeod
Abstract
Therapist competence refers to the skillfulness and responsiveness demonstrated when delivering an intervention and is an important factor to consider in the training and evaluation of therapists. However, competence research is sparse, especially in the youth psychosocial treatment field. A primary discrepancy is whether technical (related to interventions associated with a specific treatment program) and global (general clinical expertise) competence can be measured as distinct dimensions of competence. The goal of the current study was to determine whether instruments of technical (Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment for Anxiety in Youth Competence Scale; CBAY-C; McLeod et al., 2018) and global (Global Therapist Competence Scale for Youth Psychosocial Treatment; G-COMP; Brown et al., 2018) competence assessed distinct constructs in the context of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for youth anxiety. Treatment sessions (n = 359 SMT; n = 244 MMT) from 38 youth participants (n = 16 MMT; n = 22 SMT; M age = 9.84 years, SD = 1.65; 47.4% female, 60.5% Caucasian) from an effectiveness study were coded by two coders in two CBT programs (modular manualized treatment [MMT] and standard manualized treatment [SMT]) for youth anxiety using observational coding systems designed to assess competence, adherence, and alliance. The average intraclass correlations
(ICC[2,2]) for CBAY-C model items was .53 (SD = .23) in the MMT condition and .71 (SD = .08) in the SMT condition. The average ICC(2,2) for G-COMP items was .53 (SD = .04) in the MMT condition and .69 (SD = .05) in the SMT condition. The average correlation between technical (CBAY-C) and global competence (G-COMP) subscale scores was r = .59 in the MMT condition and r = .73 in the SMT condition. The findings suggested there was insufficient evidence to demonstrate that technical competence could be consistently measured as distinct from all dimensions of global competence across two different CBT programs. Future research should examine the potential distinction between technical and global competence in treatment programs other than CBT.
Rights
© The Author
Is Part Of
VCU University Archives
Is Part Of
VCU Theses and Dissertations
Date of Submission
4-4-2020