Reliability analysis of the Counselor Activity Self-efficacy Scale (CASES) in a Malaysian context: A preliminary study

Abstract

Numerous research findings have highlighted counseling self-efficacy, defined as the strength of perceived competencies in successfully performing the tasks and roles of a counselor, as one of the most important factors affecting counselors' performance. This preliminary study incorporated item analysis and reliability analysis to determine the quality of the items, and reliability of the Counselor Activity Self-efficacy Scale (CASES) developed by Lent, Hill, and Hoffman (2003) in a Malaysian setting. It involved 30 final year students of Bachelor of Education (Guidance and Counseling) program in a public university in Malaysia. CASES is a self-administered instrument used to measure counseling students' self-efficacy regarding their helping skills, management of counseling process, and coping with challenges of different counseling situations. Item analyses revealed that majority of the items of CASES are of high quality. The findings confirmed the overall internal reliability of the scale (alpha=.98). Specifically, subsections of the scale were highly reliable in measuring counseling self-efficacy of university students, helping skills (alpha=.93), management of counseling process (alpha=.95), coping with challenges of different counseling situations (alpha=.97). Implications of the findings for counselor education and areas for future research are discussed. © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd.