Italian Validation of a Tool for Assessing Sense of Self-Efficacy Related to Counselling Skills of Speech Therapists
Ilenia Visca, Alberto Catalano, Francesca Malandrone, Fulvio Ricceri, Sara Carletto
Counselling skills in the healthcare field are high-level communication competencies that can and must be acquired so that a professional can perform the tasks required in the care process. The study aims to adapt the questionnaire The Counsellor Activity Self-Efficacy Scales for Speech-Language Pathologists to the Italian context to measure the sense of self-efficacy related to the counselling skills of speech and language pathologists. The original questionnaire was translated and adapted to the Italian context through a cross-cultural validation process. After being disseminated among Italian speech and language pathologists via an online survey, exploratory factor analysis was conducted, and Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients were estimated for each extracted dimension. The factor analysis confirmed a five-factor structure: Emotional Skills, Cultural Factors, and Helping Skills in three domains (Exploration, Insight, and Collecting and Giving information). Additionally, an association emerged between age, professional experience, and training curriculum, with self-efficacy ratings. The questionnaire, adapted to the Italian context, is psychometrically sound and in line with reported values for the American tool. Potential use for the survey tool within the field of speech therapy could concern both the educational and the working context for determining implications related to counselling skills.
Keywords
Counselling skills, Self-efficacy, Speech therapy, Questionnaire, Validation.
