Occupational therapy students rating the social profile of their educational group: do they agree?
Sammanfattning
Background: During the curriculum, occupational therapy students learn to administer a range
of assessment procedures. Interrater agreement between occupational therapy students’ ratings
of group functioning has not yet been examined.
Aims: To examine the interrater agreement within groups of students’ ratings using the Social
Profile.
Methods and materials: The Social Profile assesses the social interaction behaviours in activity
groups, and 35 students completed the measure. Two methods of obtaining an overall Social
Profile score were explored. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated to assess the
level of agreement within groups of raters.
Results: Social interaction in the study groups occurred more frequently within the basic
cooperative level. There was substantial agreement within groups of raters on this level, whereas
there was low to moderate agreement on the other four levels. The weighted method of obtaining
an overall Social Profile score showed higher ICC than the simpler method.
Conclusion and significance: It appears to be easier to reach high interrater agreement when
considering frequently occurring behaviours in a group. The weighted method of obtaining an
overall Social Profile score showed the best ICC results and should preferably be used in future
studies where an overall measure is sought.