Construction of a measure of the working alliance in counselor supervision and the prediction of trainee self-efficacy

This study was an investigation of the relationship between a supervisor and trainee in counselor supervision. Attempt was made to construct a self-report measure of the relationship,construed as the working alliance, and then to use the measure to predict trainee self efficacy scores. One-hundred-seventy-nine supervisors and 173 trainees from internship sites in professional psychology and graduate training programs in counseling and clinical psychology served as subjects for the study. One-hundred-seventy-three supervisor-trainee dyads were included in the subject pool. Supervisors completed the Supervisory Working Alliance Inventory (SWAI) and a measure of supervisor style. Trainees completed the SWAI, a measure of supervisor style, and a measure of self efficacy. A factor analysis indicated that one relatively independent and interpretable factor could be identified on both the supervisor and trainee versions of the inventory as follows: Supervisor Perception of Trainee Collaboration, Trainee Comfortableness with Supervisor. A second factor on the supervisor version was Supervisor Planfulness. The initial estimates of reliability and concurrent validity for the scales from the SWAI were moderate to high. In combination with other predictors, the scales of the SWAI accounted for 21% of the variance in trainee self- efficacy scores.