The development of the Broaching Assessment Scale: A client-rated measure of therapists' broaching behaviour in clinical counselling.

Objective: Addressing ethnic-cultural topics during the process of psychotherapy, i.e. broaching , is considered highly important for ethnic minority clients who consult mental health care services. Surprisingly little is known, however, about clients' perception of a therapist's broaching qualities, and how clients' mental construction of broaching translates into behavioural broaching acts a therapist may display. Method: Based on previous work and nine in-depth interviews with ethnic minority clients, a client-rated measure of therapists' broaching behaviour was developed and psychometrically evaluated in two samples. Sample 1 ( N  = 252 UK ethnic minority clients) was used to empirically delineate the factor structure of an initial item set. Participants were then resolicited to complete a revised item pool. Results: The empirical structure resulted in a final 25-item broaching instrument with five subscales probing into therapists' broaching behaviour. This Broaching Assessment Scale (BrAS) was validated in Sample 2 ( N  = 239 US ethnic minority clients). Strict measurement invariance of the factor structure was observed across the two samples and distinctive correlational patterns with therapeutic process measures were found. Conclusion: The BrAS provides new insights on how sensitivity to ethnic-cultural topics can be targeted along its concrete features, and is a promising tool for conceptualizing culturally sensitive mental healthcare assessment.