The Counseling Training Environment Scale (CTES): Development of a self-report measure to assess counseling training environment

Abstract

Based on Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1992) ecological framework, the Counseling Training Environment Scale (CTES) was developed as a self-report measure that assesses the learning and training environment of counseling and related mental health training programs as perceived by current students.

A two-phase mixed-methods design was used to create and psychometrically evaluate the CTES: (a) item development, and (b) assessment of the outcomes to examine for preliminary evidence of validity and reliability. The results of the item development and content validation process yielded 128 items, of which 34 were used for the final intact version of the CTES. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on four models of the CTES: (a) 34-item single-factor model, (b) 34-item five-factor model, (c) 26-item modified five-factor model, and (d) 24-item modified single-factor model. Results of the CFA suggest that despite not conforming to the hypothesized model of Bronfenbrenner's (1979, 1992) ecological theory, the data gathered from the modified 24-item single-factor CTES demonstrated the best fit on the following fit indices: NNFI (.95), CFI (.96), SRMR (.04), and RMSEA (.04). The modified 24-item CTES was also found to demonstrate strong reliability and temporal stability as demonstrated through Classical Test Theory analyses (α = .92) and test-retest reliability (r = .90, p< .01, two-tailed).