Occupational therapy students rating the social profile of their educational group: do they agree?

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.