Development of the Spiritual and Religious Competency Assessment (SARCA): An instrument to measure competency in supervisees

Abstract

Scope and Method of Study: The primary purposes of this study were to develop a measure of spiritual and religious competency that could be utilized in the supervision relationship and to explore possible predictors of spiritual and religious competency. The participants were 176 American Psychological Association student affiliates who completed an online survey that included five questionnaires: demographics, Supervisee Level Questionnaire-Revised, Spiritual and Religious Competency Assessment, Age-Universal Intrinsic-Extrinsic Scale-12, and Spiritual Involvement and Beliefs Scale. Cronbach alpha analysis, principal component factor analysis, and multiple regression analysis were conducted to answer the three research questions.

Findings and Conclusions: The measurement created to assess spiritual and religious competency, the SARCA, was found to be reliable. The structure of the SARCA is best seen as comprised of one factor. A group of variables to include age, percent of spiritual/religious supervision, religiosity and developmental level were found to significantly predict spiritual and religious competency as assessed by the SARCA.