An Examination of the Counselor Burnout Inventory Using Item Response Theory in Early Career Post-Master’s Counselors

Abstract

We examined the psychometric properties of the Counselor Burnout Inventory (CBI) with 560 early career, post-master’s counselors. We tested the dimensional structure of the CBI, item ordering, and the function of the rating scale using item response theory. Implications of the findings for researchers, counselors, and counselor educators are discussed.

Keywords:

• Counselor burnout
• item response theory
• item ordering
• person estimates
• item estimates

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision.

Notes on contributors

Ryan M. Cook

Ryan M. Cook, PhD, LPC, ACS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at the University of Alabama. His research interests include supervisee nondisclosure, clinical supervision, and critical issues in the field of counseling.

Heather J. Fye

Heather J. Fye, PhD, LPC, NCC, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling at the University of Alabama. Her research interests include wellness, stress and coping, burnout, and professional issues of school counseling.

Stefanie A. Wind

Stefanie A. Wind, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Educational Measurement at the University of Alabama. Her primary research interests include the exploration of methodological issues in the field of educational measurement, with emphases on methods related to rater-mediated assessments, rating scales, Rasch models and item response theory models, and nonparametric item response theory, as well as applications of these methods to substantive areas related to education.