Development and evaluation of an inventory for rating client satisfaction with outcome in HIV counseling: the Albion Center scale

We developed an inventory for rating client satisfaction with outcome in HIV counseling, based on interview responses with clients. The resulting 19-item scale was subject to factor analysis and four factors, accounting for 56% of the variance, emerged. The factors described dimensions of Perception of progress and improved mood; Recognition of a specific need for counseling; Behavior change from counseling; and Counseling climate. Factor-scored scales were significantly associated with time in counseling and for the Specific need for counseling scale, HIV-seropositive respondents had a significantly higher score. Scale reliabilities (Cronbach's alpha) were between 0.85 and 0.50. Concurrent administration with the Counseling Evaluation Inventory indicated that there were significant correlations between the two scales.