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

Share

COinS