Research Article Confirmatory Factor Analysis on the Professional Suitability Scale for Social Work Practice

Objective: This article presents a validation study to examine the factor structure of an instrument designed to measure professional suitability for social work practice. Method: Data were collected from registered social workers in a provincial mailed survey. The response rate was 23.2%. After eliminating five cases with multivariate outliers, confirmatory factor analysis using maximum likelihood estimation was performed on 285 cases. Results: A 22-item four-factor model achieved an acceptable good fit. Reliability testing results indicate an overall Cronbach’s a valued at.90 and subscale as ranged between.75 and.89. Conclusion: Findings affirm good-to-excellent internal consistency of the Professional Suitability scale with two previous studies and provide acceptable results on construct validity. Keywords professional suitability, competency, social work, confirmatory factor analysis Similar to other professions like medicine, dentistry, psychol-ogy, and nursing, social work is expected to fulfill its profes-sional accountability and responsibility in order to assure quality service and protection of the public (Bogo, 2010; Bogo