Development and validation of the Supervisory Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ) in UK trainee clinical psychologists

To develop a valid and reliable measure of the supervisory relationship (SR) from the supervisee perspective.

A cross-sectional questionnaire design was used with a repeated measures component for a sub-sample.

Qualitative data obtained from a previous study and from review of the literature were used to construct a 111 item self-report questionnaire measure [Supervisory Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ)]. This was administered to 284 British trainee clinical psychologists. Eighty-five participants completed the SRQ a second time to establish its test-retest reliability.

Principal components analysis (PCA) identified six components of the SRQ. Three of these reflected the 'facilitative' relationship characteristics of the SR and were labelled 'safe base', 'commitment' and 'structure'. The second set of components reflected the educative and evaluative functions of supervision. These were labelled 'reflective education', 'role model' and 'formative feedback'. Safe base accounted for the greatest proportion of variance in SRQ scores (52 per cent). Analyses using the six subscales subsequently derived from the PCA, revealed the SRQ to have high internal reliability, good test-retest reliability and good construct (convergent and divergent) validity. A preliminary test of predictive validity was conducted.

The SRQ (six subscales, total of 67 items) is a valid and reliable measure of the SR from the supervisee perspective. The present findings support existing models of the SR, and its distinct nature during training as an educative and evaluative process. The SRQ is a promising tool for further research, and is likely to be useful in supervisor training and clinical settings.