Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale II: Testing the Hypothesized Factor Structure

ABSTRACT

The Geriatric Social Work Competency Scale II is the leading measure of students’ competency with older adults. Although the 40-item instrument has demonstrated strong internal consistency and congruent validity, the hypothesized four-factor structure has not been tested. We used confirmatory factor analysis with a sample of social work students (N=667) to test the fit of the hypothesized model and explore respecification. The original model demonstrated strong internal consistency and a roughly acceptable fit. However, high interfactor correlations and items with significant cross-loadings led to the development of a 36-item version. The reduced version made small but consistent improvements in model fit and discrimination among factors while retaining strong internal consistency. Implications for future research and scale usage are discussed.

Notes

¹ Without changing the four initial domains, a fifth domain was added for leadership. It was not used in the present study as it does not focus on social work students but on continuing education of practitioners.

² The age variable contained a large amount of missing data (31.7%). In contrast, no other variable was omitted by more than two individuals.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

John M. Gallagher

John M. Gallagher is an assistant professor at the University of Arkansas.

Robin P. Bonifas

Robin P. Bonifas is chair, Department of Social Work, and professor at Indiana University.

Elise Warner

Elise Warner is a doctoral student at the University of Arkansas.