CONSTRUCTION AND VALIDATION OF A PROFESSIONAL SUITABILITY SCALE FOR SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE

Abstract

This article reports on the construction and validation of a professional suitability scale, designed for assessing students' suitability for social work practice. Data were collected from 188 field supervisors who provided usable questionnaires, representing a response rate of 74%. Construct validation by exploratory factor analysis identified a 5-factor solution to measure suitability that accounted for 52.1% of variance: Overall, Analytical, Practice, Personal, and Ethical Suitability. This solution has achieved modest construct validity with communalities ranging between .753 and .376 (α=.93). Potential use of the scale and suggestions for future study are discussed.