Military Cultural Competence Among Human Service Helping Professionals: A Psychometric Analysis of Three Brief Measures

Service members, Veterans, and military families regularly seek clinical care from civilian providers, and military cultural competence is critical for effective service provision. This study outlines the development and evaluation of three brief measures designed to assess military cultural competence among human service helping professionals. Participants were 258 diverse professionals. A series of psychometric analyses were conducted, including confirmatory factor analyses, tests for measurement invariance, and assessments of scale reliability and validity for each measure: Perceived Military Cultural Knowledge and Skills, Military Client Intervention Confidence, and Informed Practice Serving Military-Connected Clients. Results indicated good model fit. Measures were internally consistent, showed convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity, and demonstrated invariance over time. This initial study demonstrates that the three measures appear to be distinct, reliable, valid, and appropriate for use. Helping professionals and researchers can use these measures to assess military cultural competence for self-assessment, in training programs, and/or in research.