Brown Ted, Boyle Malcolm, Williams Brett, Molloy Andrew, McKenna Lisa, Palermo Claire, Molloy Liz
Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Primary Health Care, Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences, Monash University - Peninsula Campus, Frankston, Victoria, Australia.
Scand J Caring Sci. 2013 Jun;27(2):363-72. doi: 10.1111/j.1471-6712.2012.01048.x. Epub 2012 Jul 30.
It is important for educators to consider the communication skills of students enrolled in health science programmes. To date, research into this area is limited, and having measures that are valid and reliable would assist educators and researchers to complete high-quality investigations.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the factor structure of Communicator Styles Measure.
Data from the Communicator Styles Measure completed by 860 undergraduate health science students enrolled in eight different courses at an Australian university (response rate of 59%) were analysed using principal component analysis with varimax rotation and a cluster analysis using elementary linkage analysis. The Communicator Styles Measure is a self-report scale consisting of 40 items designed to assess ten communication styles and one's perception of his/her ability to communicate.
Communicator Styles Measure items loaded onto five new viable factors labelled personable, energetic, confident, open and confronting. Six items of the original 40 from the Communicator Styles Measure did not load onto any factor and were therefore considered redundant.
The original factor structure proposed by the Communicator Styles Measure's author was not supported, which calls into question its construct validity. However, the five new factors identified in this study may be useful for researchers and educators when assessing the communication skills of students and practitioners. Further investigation into the construct validity and reliability of the five new Communicator Styles Measure factors is recommended.
对于教育工作者而言，考虑健康科学专业学生的沟通技巧非常重要。迄今为止，该领域的研究有限，拥有有效且可靠的测量方法将有助于教育工作者和研究人员完成高质量的调查。
本研究的目的是调查沟通风格量表的因子结构。
对澳大利亚一所大学八门不同课程的860名健康科学专业本科学生填写的沟通风格量表数据（回复率为59%）进行主成分分析和方差最大化旋转，并使用基本连锁分析进行聚类分析。沟通风格量表是一种自我报告量表，由40个项目组成，旨在评估十种沟通风格以及个人对自己沟通能力的认知。
沟通风格量表的项目加载到五个新的有效因子上，分别标记为亲切、活力、自信、开放和直接。沟通风格量表最初的40个项目中有6个未加载到任何因子上，因此被认为是多余的。
沟通风格量表作者提出的原始因子结构未得到支持，这使其结构效度受到质疑。然而，本研究中确定的五个新因子在评估学生和从业者的沟通技巧时，可能对研究人员和教育工作者有用。建议对沟通风格量表五个新因子的结构效度和信度进行进一步调查。
