The Psychometric Properties of the Session Rating Scale: A Narrative Review

Background: The Session Rating Scale (SRS) is a measure used in psychotherapy practice. Given its application and frequent use in clinical practice settings, several studies including primary validation studies as well as outcome studies reporting psychometric properties have examined the validity and reliability of the SRS. Because the SRS is designed to be used in clinical practice, demonstration of reliability and validity is ideal with clinical populations instead of non-clinical populations. To our knowledge, there have been no reviews evaluating the psychometric properties of the SRS with clinical populations.Purpose: The aim of this study was to review and synthesize the psychometric properties of the SRS by examining all relevant outcome and validation studies.Methods: We completed an electronic literature search of several online databases in order to identify relevant articles. We identified 12 articles that met our inclusion and analyzed the reliability and validity evidence for the SRS with clinical populations.Results: Findings showed high internal consistency for the SRS and support evidence that the underlying dimension is a measure of therapeutic alliance. Test-retest reliability estimates were reported in 4 of the 12 studies included in this review (ranging from .54 to .70). The SRS had low to moderate concurrent validity with other longer measures of therapeutic alliance (.29 with ORS; .48 with HAQ II; .57-.65 with WAI).Discussion: Clinicians should be aware of the limitations in validity evidence for the SRS that may result from its brevity. However, clinicians should also consider the relative stability of the SRS as a pragmatic global measure of the construct of therapeutic alliance. Future research efforts should focus on validation of the SRS with larger, more diverse samples and specific clinical populations with a wider range of symptom severity.