Validation of the practice skills inventory with experienced clinical social workers

The Practice Skills Inventory (PSI) was developed with MSW students to measure the frequency with which social workers employ specific intervention strategies. Despite initial evidence of validity, reliability, and utility further validation is needed with more experienced social workers. The current study with 281 experienced MSW practitioners revealed three factors (Supportive, Therapeutic, and Case Management) very similar to three of the original four factors derived from the previous study. However some differences did emerge including an additional insight factor These four factors constituted a more parsimonious solution (23 items) than the original scale and accounted for over 60% of the variance with good to excellent internal reliabilities. Comparisons with the original version are made as well as suggestions for future research.