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Schedule:
Sunday, January 18, 2026
Independence BR G, ML 4 (Marriott Marquis Washington DC)
* noted as presenting author
Background. This study developed and validated the Supervisor Practices in Reflection Supervision-Home Visiting (SupRS-HV) measure. Early childhood home visiting promotes health and well-being of expectant families and families with young children in communities experiencing increased risk for negative outcomes. Home visitors and their supervisors have multidisciplinary backgrounds (e.g., social work, early care and education, nursing) and varying levels of education and experience. Reflective supervision (RS) is widely supported in home visiting as a strategy to build home visitor competencies and their capacity to manage the complex emotions that often accompany the work. Yet, evidence for RS is extremely limited. The federal Supporting and Strengthening the Home Visiting Workforce (SAS-HV) project team identified the need for a valid and reliable measure of RS practices to strengthen the evidence.
Methods. Measure development and testing involved a multi-year, multi-step process grounded in theory, prior evidence, and extensive engagement with home visiting staff. Data for this paper were collected using multiple methods, including a cross-sectional survey of 502 home visiting supervisors, repeated measures surveys with a subgroup of supervisors and their home visitors, and focus groups. Participants were recruited through networks of home visiting programs. Supervisor participants were from multiple home visiting models, 66% identified as white, and 88% had at least a bachelor’s degree. We conducted descriptive analyses of all items, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to examine the SuPRS-HV factor structure, correlational analyses to gather evidence of concurrent validity with established measures, and descriptive and qualitative thematic analysis to assess feasibility and acceptability.
Results. A five-factor solution demonstrated adequate fit and was conceptually meaningful. Non-loading items were discussed and trimmed as deemed appropriate. The resulting SuPRS-HV is a self-report measure of 11 topics discussed and 27 reflective supervision techniques, organized in five subscales (Responsiveness, Collaborative Capacity Building, Unconditional Positive Regard, Awareness of Self and Other, and Supportive Feedback). The measure takes about 10 minutes to complete. Subscales evidenced good to excellent reliability and were associated in expected ways with related measures. Participants had favorable perceptions of the brief measure overall.
Implications. The SuPRS-HV addresses gaps in existing measures and provides a feasible, relevant, and reliable measure of RS for the home visiting context. Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the use of the SuPRS-HV in research to strengthen evidence for RS, with promising secondary use in practice for training and quality improvement. While tested for home visiting, the measure also holds promise for use in other similar social work practice settings that use RS.
Methods. Measure development and testing involved a multi-year, multi-step process grounded in theory, prior evidence, and extensive engagement with home visiting staff. Data for this paper were collected using multiple methods, including a cross-sectional survey of 502 home visiting supervisors, repeated measures surveys with a subgroup of supervisors and their home visitors, and focus groups. Participants were recruited through networks of home visiting programs. Supervisor participants were from multiple home visiting models, 66% identified as white, and 88% had at least a bachelor’s degree. We conducted descriptive analyses of all items, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to examine the SuPRS-HV factor structure, correlational analyses to gather evidence of concurrent validity with established measures, and descriptive and qualitative thematic analysis to assess feasibility and acceptability.
Results. A five-factor solution demonstrated adequate fit and was conceptually meaningful. Non-loading items were discussed and trimmed as deemed appropriate. The resulting SuPRS-HV is a self-report measure of 11 topics discussed and 27 reflective supervision techniques, organized in five subscales (Responsiveness, Collaborative Capacity Building, Unconditional Positive Regard, Awareness of Self and Other, and Supportive Feedback). The measure takes about 10 minutes to complete. Subscales evidenced good to excellent reliability and were associated in expected ways with related measures. Participants had favorable perceptions of the brief measure overall.
Implications. The SuPRS-HV addresses gaps in existing measures and provides a feasible, relevant, and reliable measure of RS for the home visiting context. Findings provide preliminary psychometric support for the use of the SuPRS-HV in research to strengthen evidence for RS, with promising secondary use in practice for training and quality improvement. While tested for home visiting, the measure also holds promise for use in other similar social work practice settings that use RS.