Assessing Shared Trauma Among Master of Social Work Students: A Validation Study

Abstract

Purpose: This study reports on the validation of the COVID-19 Quality of Professional Practice Survey (C19QPPS) among Master of Social Work (MSW) students in field training. Method: The C19QPPS measures the unique construct of shared trauma among social work practitioners related to COVID-19 but has yet to be validated with any population. To determine validity, data were collected from 145 graduate students and a model-generating form of structural equation modeling was employed. Results: The priori theory of three shared traumatic stress factors, Technique, Growth, and Trauma were confirmed. The best-fitting model consisted of three factors with acceptable fit statistics (χ2  =  66.45, p  =  .00; RMSEA  =  0.07, 90% CI [0.04, 0.10]; CFI  =  0.95; TLI  =  0.93). Discussion: Results validated the C19QPPS for evaluating MSW students’ shared trauma related to COVID-19. The findings support utilizing the C19QPPS to evaluate shared trauma among professional social workers.