title: Construct validity test of evaluation tool for professional behaviors of entry-level occupational therapy students in the United States.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to test the construct validity of an instrument to measure student professional behaviors in entry-level occupational therapy (OT) students in the academic setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 718 students from 37 OT programs across the United States answered a self-assessment survey of professional behavior that we developed. The survey consisted of ranking 28 attributes, each on a 5-point Likert scale. A split-sample approach was used for exploratory and then confirmatory factor analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A three-factor solution with nine items was extracted using exploratory factor analysis [EFA] (n=430, 60%). The factors were 'Commitment to Learning' (2 items), 'Skills for Learning' (4 items), and 'Cultural Competence' (3 items). Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the validation split (n=288, 40%) indicated fair fit for this three-factor model (fit indices: CFI=0.96, RMSEA=0.06, and SRMR=0.05). Internal consistency reliability estimates of each factor and the instrument ranged from 0.63 to 0.79.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results of the CFA in a separate validation dataset provided robust measures of goodness-of-fit for the three-factor solution developed in the EFA, and indicated that the three-factor model fitted the data well enough. Therefore, we can conclude that this student professional behavior evaluation instrument is a structurally validated tool to measure professional behaviors reported by entry-level OT students. The internal consistency reliability of each individual factor and the whole instrument was considered to be adequate to good.
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Hon K
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5696-1845
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Yuen
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Andres
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9883-1424
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Azuero
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Kaitlin W
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-0709-1294
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Lackey
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Nicole S
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-3162-4903
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.affiliation: Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Professions, University of Alabama at Birmingham,Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Sangita
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3398-6040
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Shrestha
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior; D054521:Cultural Competency; D006801:Humans; D007858:Learning; D000072087:Occupational Therapists / Q000193:education; D009788:Occupational Therapy / Q000193:education*; D000068616:Professionalism; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013336:Students, Health Occupations; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*; D014481:United States
keywords: Occupational therapy; Professionalism; Statistical factor analysis; Surveys and questionnaires; United States