203 The Professional Counselor | Volume 13, Issue 3 The OQ is available in a Spanish translation; however, we only included people who completed the English OQ-45.2 version in the current study. Future analyses should examine the factor structure of the Spanish OQ-45.2 as well. Next, future research on the OQ should include the development and testing of new items. Lastly, future research should aim to validate the reduced 16-item and 18-item OQ scores on a new sample and seek to establish a new criterion for clinical significance. Professional counselors may also benefit from the creation of a specific instrument assessing distress related to the unique stressors that economically vulnerable clients face. Until further analyses are conducted with a new sample population to confirm the abbreviated models, we encourage professional counselors to implement the brief version tentatively and with caution, and to follow up with the client regarding high scores on critical items prior to making clinical judgments regarding reported subscale scores. Conclusion Given the broad utility of the OQ-45.2 in research and mental health settings, researchers and professional counselors must understand the instrument’s structure for interpretation purposes and how the assessment should be adapted for various populations. Professional counselors can effectively support clients by assessing and recognizing how economic-related distress impacts their quality of life, which may directly relate to treatment outcomes. Findings from the current study add to previous literature that calls into question the original OQ-45.2 factor structure. Additionally, the current study’s findings support a revised 16-item, three-factor structure for economically vulnerable clients and we provide implications for use of this assessment in clinical practice. Future research should include a confirmatory analysis of the current findings. Conflict of Interest and Funding Disclosure This research was supported by a grant (90FM0078) from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (USDHHS), Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USDHHS, Office of Family Assistance. The authors reported no further funding or conflict of interest. References Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4(6), 561–571. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpsyc.1961.01710120031004 Beidas, R. S., Stewart, R. E., Walsh, L., Lucas, S., Downey, M. M., Jackson, K., Fernandez, T., & Mandell, D. S. (2015). Free, brief, and validated: Standardized instruments for low-resource mental health settings. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 22(1), 5–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2014.02.002 Bentler, P. M. (1990). Comparative fit indexes in structural models. Psychological Bulletin, 107(2), 238–246. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.107.2.238 Bludworth, J. L., Tracey, T. J. G., & Glidden-Tracey, C. (2010). The bilevel structure of the Outcome Questionnaire–45. Psychological Assessment, 22(2), 350–355. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019187 Browne, M. W., & Cudeck, R. (1993). Alternative ways of assessing model fit. In K. A. Bollen and J. S. Long (Eds.), Testing structural equation models. SAGE.
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