<p>Advocacy is a crucial competency for school social workers (SSWs). Since SSWs often work in multidisciplinary settings, they need a screening tool with valid scores for measuring their advocacy efforts for students, families, schools, and policy change. Currently, the literature is missing a measure with valid scores for assessing SSW’s advocacy practices on both microsystemic and macrosystemic levels. Such a tool could offer valuable feedback on enhancing advocacy to promote equity and well-being across micro-, mezzo-, and macro-systems for all School-Based Mental Health Providers. The purpose of the present study was to develop and initially validate scores on the School-Based Advocacy Awareness Scale (SBAAS), a new screening tool for measuring SSW’s utilization of advocacy skills on the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels in schools. Validity evidence based on internal structure was established for SSW’s SBAAS scores through exploratory, confirmatory, and bi-factor confirmatory factor analyses with two independent samples of SSWs. Collectively, we found factor analytic support for the dimensionality of SSW’s SBAAS scores across the following tridimensional model: Advocacy for Student Wellness, Advocacy for Laws and Policies, and Confronting Discrimination and Bias. Results revealed that the internal structure of the SBAAS was estimated adequately through both a correlated factor model as well as via a simultaneous general-factor and group-factor model. Moreover, we found strong evidence of convergent validity between SSW’s SBAAS scores with several established latent constructs. Results are discussed in terms of how SSWs can use the SBAAS as one way to measure their utilization of advocacy skills on microsystemic and macrosystemic levels.</p>

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Development and Validation of Scores on the School-Based Advocacy and Awareness Scale (SBAAS)

  • Kimberly M. Knox,
  • Michael T. Kalkbrenner

摘要

Advocacy is a crucial competency for school social workers (SSWs). Since SSWs often work in multidisciplinary settings, they need a screening tool with valid scores for measuring their advocacy efforts for students, families, schools, and policy change. Currently, the literature is missing a measure with valid scores for assessing SSW’s advocacy practices on both microsystemic and macrosystemic levels. Such a tool could offer valuable feedback on enhancing advocacy to promote equity and well-being across micro-, mezzo-, and macro-systems for all School-Based Mental Health Providers. The purpose of the present study was to develop and initially validate scores on the School-Based Advocacy Awareness Scale (SBAAS), a new screening tool for measuring SSW’s utilization of advocacy skills on the micro-, mezzo-, and macro-levels in schools. Validity evidence based on internal structure was established for SSW’s SBAAS scores through exploratory, confirmatory, and bi-factor confirmatory factor analyses with two independent samples of SSWs. Collectively, we found factor analytic support for the dimensionality of SSW’s SBAAS scores across the following tridimensional model: Advocacy for Student Wellness, Advocacy for Laws and Policies, and Confronting Discrimination and Bias. Results revealed that the internal structure of the SBAAS was estimated adequately through both a correlated factor model as well as via a simultaneous general-factor and group-factor model. Moreover, we found strong evidence of convergent validity between SSW’s SBAAS scores with several established latent constructs. Results are discussed in terms of how SSWs can use the SBAAS as one way to measure their utilization of advocacy skills on microsystemic and macrosystemic levels.