Saul B Gomez, Psy.D.
Incoming Class of 2007
Internship: Mt. Sinai / Elmhurst Hospital Center
May 2013 Conferral
The Psychometric Validation of the Obstacles to Engagement Scale
Chair: Camilo Ortiz, Ph.D.
Insufficient parental engagement is one of the primary challenges for behaviorally oriented parent-training interventions. In an effort to assess how personal obstacles and obstacles related to the intervention might interfere with the level of engagement in parenting interventions, Dumas developed the Obstacles to Engagement Scale (OES; Dumas et al., 2007), a 14-item, Likert scale measure of factors that might interfere with engagement in parenting interventions. The current study is a comprehensive evaluation of the psychometric properties of the OES. Three factors were extracted via EFA. CFA revealed good model fit and confirmed the three-factor solution. The full scale, a priori subscales, and extracted subscales all demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency, as well as split-half reliability. The OES is homogenous, internally consistent, and can be expected to perform in a predictable manner. Analyses of criterion-related validity and construct validity indicate that the OES was unable to predict engagement in the current sample. These findings suggest that while the OES is internally consistent and reliable, it has limited external validity. Possible reasons for these outcomes are discussed, as well as potential aims for future attempts at improving the OES.