Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21
Abstract Introduction: The Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA) is an example of a validated instrument for measuring mentor skills for postsecondary Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine research. The purpose of this study was to revalidate the MCA scale using a larger, mor...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2022-01-01
|
| Series: | Journal of Clinical and Translational Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866122003818/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156559880781824 |
|---|---|
| author | So Hee Hyun Jenna G. Rogers Stephanie C. House Christine A. Sorkness Christine Pfund |
| author_facet | So Hee Hyun Jenna G. Rogers Stephanie C. House Christine A. Sorkness Christine Pfund |
| author_sort | So Hee Hyun |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description |
Abstract
Introduction:
The Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA) is an example of a validated instrument for measuring mentor skills for postsecondary Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine research. The purpose of this study was to revalidate the MCA scale using a larger, more diverse population since the original MCA was validated on a small sample of predominantly senior white male faculty.
Methods:
The MCA was completed by 1626 mentors from a survey data set of 1759 respondents who participated in eight or more hours of face-to-face Entering Mentoring-based training between 2010 and 2019. We conducted principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to investigate the internal structure of the MCA and Hatcher’s criteria were applied. After a team of mentoring experts independently interpreted the PCA results and reached a consensus on the interpretations of the components, factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis were applied to assess the construct validity and the reliability.
Results:
While the 26-item MCA instrument was originally validated with six subscales, through the factor and reliability analyses, all the parameter estimates for each item of seven components of 24-item MCA were significant and had relatively high internal consistency; the alpha coefficient for the components ranged from 0.77 to 0.86.
Conclusions:
Five items from the MCA have been dropped, leaving a condensed 21 item scale (MCA-21) which loads onto six competencies, and should now be used to effectively measure mentoring skills. We provide recommendations for furthering the scale development and validation of common measures.
|
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:53:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5fca323f7a1f42768004f3a25fd8f337 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2059-8661 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:53:39Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Clinical and Translational Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-5fca323f7a1f42768004f3a25fd8f3372023-03-09T12:31:03ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Clinical and Translational Science2059-86612022-01-01610.1017/cts.2022.381Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21So Hee Hyun0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6982-9541Jenna G. Rogers1Stephanie C. House2Christine A. Sorkness3Christine Pfund4Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USAWisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USAInstitute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USAInstitute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USAInstitute for Clinical and Translational Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA Abstract Introduction: The Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA) is an example of a validated instrument for measuring mentor skills for postsecondary Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine research. The purpose of this study was to revalidate the MCA scale using a larger, more diverse population since the original MCA was validated on a small sample of predominantly senior white male faculty. Methods: The MCA was completed by 1626 mentors from a survey data set of 1759 respondents who participated in eight or more hours of face-to-face Entering Mentoring-based training between 2010 and 2019. We conducted principal component analysis (PCA) with varimax rotation to investigate the internal structure of the MCA and Hatcher’s criteria were applied. After a team of mentoring experts independently interpreted the PCA results and reached a consensus on the interpretations of the components, factor analysis and internal consistency reliability analysis were applied to assess the construct validity and the reliability. Results: While the 26-item MCA instrument was originally validated with six subscales, through the factor and reliability analyses, all the parameter estimates for each item of seven components of 24-item MCA were significant and had relatively high internal consistency; the alpha coefficient for the components ranged from 0.77 to 0.86. Conclusions: Five items from the MCA have been dropped, leaving a condensed 21 item scale (MCA-21) which loads onto six competencies, and should now be used to effectively measure mentoring skills. We provide recommendations for furthering the scale development and validation of common measures. https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866122003818/type/journal_articleResearch mentor trainingMentoring Competency Assessmentinstrument validationmentoring skillsmentorship common measures |
| spellingShingle | So Hee Hyun Jenna G. Rogers Stephanie C. House Christine A. Sorkness Christine Pfund Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 Journal of Clinical and Translational Science Research mentor training Mentoring Competency Assessment instrument validation mentoring skills mentorship common measures |
| title | Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 |
| title_full | Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 |
| title_fullStr | Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 |
| title_short | Revalidation of the Mentoring Competency Assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors: The MCA-21 |
| title_sort | revalidation of the mentoring competency assessment to evaluate skills of research mentors the mca 21 |
| topic | Research mentor training Mentoring Competency Assessment instrument validation mentoring skills mentorship common measures |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2059866122003818/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT soheehyun revalidationofthementoringcompetencyassessmenttoevaluateskillsofresearchmentorsthemca21 AT jennagrogers revalidationofthementoringcompetencyassessmenttoevaluateskillsofresearchmentorsthemca21 AT stephaniechouse revalidationofthementoringcompetencyassessmenttoevaluateskillsofresearchmentorsthemca21 AT christineasorkness revalidationofthementoringcompetencyassessmenttoevaluateskillsofresearchmentorsthemca21 AT christinepfund revalidationofthementoringcompetencyassessmenttoevaluateskillsofresearchmentorsthemca21 |