TPC Journal V7, Issue 3 - FULL ISSUE

226 The Professional Counselor | Volume 7, Issue 3 .90. The subscale scores for internal consistency were .91 for Skills, .88 for Awareness, and .71 for Knowledge. A subsection of the sample ( n = 101) including students and supervisors was used for test-retest reliability. One-week test-retest reliability was found to be .84 for the overall instrument, .83 for the Skills subscale, .85 for the Awareness subscale, and .84 for the Knowledge subscale (Bidell, 2005). In addition, Bidell (2013) investigated the potential for SOCCS scores to change after implementation of an LGB counseling course six weeks into the program, and identified that the participants’ scores were significantly higher on the overall and subscale scores. Bidell’s (2013) findings identified the ability for education to promote SOCCS scores in counseling students but challenged the test-retest reliability of the SOCCS. No published data was identified related to the inter-rater reliability or alternate forms of the SOCCS. Additional Factor Analysis of the SOCCS Carlson, McGeorge, and Toomey (2013) examined the factor structure of the SOCCS with a sample of 248 master’s and doctoral students in couple and family therapy and identified a 2-factor solution: (a) Factor 1: Awareness and (b) Factor 2: Knowledge and Skills. Further, three SOCCS items (i.e., 5, 24, 25) did not load into the combined Knowledge and Skills subscale and were removed. The second examination resulted in an acceptable model fit x 2 ( df = 8) = 20.65, p < .01; however, it should be noted that five SOCCS item stems (i.e., 3, 4, 7, 8, 19) were altered and the 7-point scale was adapted to a 6-point scale. Therefore, based on the modifications made to the SOCCS, it is difficult to compare the factor structure results to other investigations using the unmodified SOCCS. Counseling Competency With Sexual Minority Clients Researchers have utilized the SOCCS in an effort to further their understanding of counseling competencies related to working with sexual minority clients (Brooks & Inman, 2013; Graham et al., 2012; Grove, 2009). Grove (2009) provided counseling students ( n = 56) with the SOCCS, and an ANOVA identified that years in training provided a significant difference in scores for Skills (p = .002), Awareness (p = .05), and Knowledge (p = .001). Although analyses were not conducted to determine the differences between subscales, Grove noted high scores in the Awareness subscale. Although individuals have strong, affirmative attitudes, they may lack the knowledge and subsequent skills necessary to effectively aid LGB clients. These SOCCS scores may be interpreted to show a variety of concerns such as inflated confidence, potential lack of training, and low competency. Graham and colleagues (2012) utilized the SOCCS with counselor education and counseling psychology graduate students ( n = 234) and yielded similar results to Grove. Participants scored highest on the Awareness subscale, followed by the Knowledge and Skills subscale scores. These research findings identify that counselor trainees may not be receiving the necessary knowledge and skills to become competent counselors in working with sexual minority clients. Advances have been made in the counseling field regarding the understanding of competency in aiding sexual minority clients (Bidell, 2005; Graham et al., 2012; Grove, 2009); however, additional research is warranted. The commonly utilized SOCCS is a self-report measure; therefore, there is potential for participants to provide socially desirable answers. Further, because the SOCCS was created to measure counselors’ level of confidence (self-efficacy) in providing counseling services to LGB clients, the literature has followed this narrow lead (Bidell, 2013; Carlson et al., 2013; Grove, 2009) . The SOCCS was created prior to ALGBTIC’s (2013) guidelines; therefore, the items may not align with the essential aspects of the guidelines. Considering this potential gap, it is essential to explore the psychometric properties of the SOCCS (Bidell, 2005). Nevertheless, the SOCCS is the most used assessment instrument for examining LGB counselor competence in training and research; hence, it is important to explore the reliability and validity of the instrument in order to support