Measuring leadership competence in group therapy: Development of an adapted version of the Group Leadership Questionnaire

Abstract

To contribute to the active efforts of increasing consistency and availability of group psychotherapy training, the present study sought to adapt a measure of group leadership styles into a brief, written measure of knowledge and skills related to the provision of process-oriented group therapy. The Group Leadership Competency Questionnaire (GLCQ) consists of 10 scenarios that could occur in a process-oriented therapy group, with five response options per scenario. It was created by synthesizing the categorization of response options as excellent, moderate, or poor choices by 10 expert group therapists. Each GLCQ scenario was accompanied by two excellent response options, one moderate option, and two poor options, as determined by the aforementioned expert sample (N = 10). The GLCQ was given to group therapy experts (n = 60), trainees (n = 67), and novices (n = 80). Respondents were asked to choose the two best responses on each scenario, and each scenario yielded a total score of 0-4 (2 points for each excellent response, 1 point for a moderate response, and 0 points for each poor response). The mean total GLCQ score, calculated as the sum of all scenario scores, was significantly different across groups, Welch’s F(2, 134.624) = 315.285, p < .001. The mean score of experts (M = 37.4, SD = 1.9) was higher than that of trainees (M = 35.8, SD = 2.3, p < .001). Likewise, the mean for experts was higher than that of novices (M = 24.3, SD = 4.1, p < .001) and the trainee mean was higher than the novice mean (p < .001). The internal consistency of the GLCQ across the combined sample was high (α = .88), although it was low for experts (α = .44), trainees (α = .52), and novices (α = .48) when sample scores were analyzed separately. Data on response speed, completion rates, and completion time are also reported. Analysis of the completion time data suggested that the GLCQ can be completed in approximately 10 minutes. These data provide promising indicators for the utility of the GLCQ in research and training.