Development and evaluation of the intersectional privilege screening inventory

Power dynamics are an innate part of the counseling process. Counselors naturally enter the counseling relationship in a position of power while simultaneously inviting the client to a position of vulnerability. These dynamics are heightened when there are differing positions of privilege and marginalization in the counselor-client relationship. Because privilege is often an invisible construct for those who hold privileged positions, counseling practitioners must develop awareness of the construct to guide best practices in both counselor education and clinical practice. Currently, counselor educators and clinical supervisors have few psychometrically based resources to quantify the presence of this construct within their counselors-in-training (CITs). The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of the Intersectional Privilege Screening Inventory (IPSI) to be used within counselor training to measure student development that is consistent with current standards for social and cultural competence. Three hundred and thirty-nine CITs enrolled in counseling programs from regionally representative universities across the United States participated in this study. Protocols for item development, expert review, cognitive interviewing, psychometric analyses of validity evidence, and estimations of internal consistency were implemented for the IPSI. Findings suggest that the procedure used to develop IPSI items resulted in content that was representative of related constructs, whereas evidence for internal consistency was robust across the subscale scores. Furthermore, the bivariate correlation analysis between scores on the IPSI and related measures provided evidence for convergent validity with conceptually-related constructs. Taken together, these findings suggest that validity and reliability evidence for scores on the IPSI indicate that the measure may represent a defensible resource within counselor preparation programs and clinical supervision. The project manuscript will be submitted to the Counselor Education and Supervision journal published by the Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Overall, the use of the IPSI allows the invisible construct of intersectional privilege to become visible so that it can be appropriately tended to throughout a CIT’s training experience. Consequently, the IPSI allows counseling programs and clinical supervisors to be better poised to provide robust evidence that their students are meeting standards for social and cultural diversity.