The MICC Scale: Validating Civilian Cultural Competency in Supporting Military Communities Across Five Countries
Tracks
Marquis Room - In Person Only
| Tuesday, March 3, 2026 |
| 2:05 PM - 2:35 PM |
| Marquis |
Overview
Henry Bowen, Hospital Research Foundation Group - Military and Emergency Services Health Australia
Details
Learning Objectives:
Analyse the methodological design and validation process of the Military Informed Cultural Competency (MICC) Scale, including expert consensus methods and psychometric testing across international civilian populations. Interpret key psychometric properties — including reliability and validity indicators — and evaluate their significance in assessing military cultural competency within diverse professional and national contexts. Identify opportunities for applying the MICC Scale in research, training, and policy development to benchmark and enhance culturally competent practice with military-connected individuals.
Analyse the methodological design and validation process of the Military Informed Cultural Competency (MICC) Scale, including expert consensus methods and psychometric testing across international civilian populations. Interpret key psychometric properties — including reliability and validity indicators — and evaluate their significance in assessing military cultural competency within diverse professional and national contexts. Identify opportunities for applying the MICC Scale in research, training, and policy development to benchmark and enhance culturally competent practice with military-connected individuals.
Speaker
Dr Henry Bowen
Research And Training Lead
Hospital Research Foundation Group - Military and Emergency Services Health Australia
The MICC Scale: Validating Civilian Cultural Competency in Supporting Military Communities Across Five Countries
Presentation Overview
Introduction:
Current and former military personnel, and their families, form a distinct cultural community shaped by the shared values, demands, and challenges of service life. Civilian professionals - including healthcare providers, educators, employers, and government staff - increasingly recognise the importance of military cultural competency: the ability to understand, engage with, and effectively support military-connected individuals. Yet few validated tools exist to measure this competency, and most are restricted to healthcare or designed for the American context. This study addresses the gap by developing and validating the Military Informed Cultural Competency (MICC) Scale, a cross-sector tool for use across the Five Eyes nations: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Methods:
The research followed three stages:
(1) development of initial items from literature and competency domains;
(2) refinement through a three-round Delphi survey with 25 international experts to achieve consensus and establish content validity; and
(3) psychometric testing with over 1,700 civilian participants across five countries, recruited via Prolific (aged 18+, English-speaking, no military background). Psychometric analyses included internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, validity testing (content, face, convergent, construct, concurrent, and discriminant), and exploratory factor analysis, conducted overall and stratified by country.
Results:
Findings will present the final MICC Scale, which demonstrates strong internal consistency, stable factor structure, and psychometric validity across all nations. This presentation will include implementation recommendations and benchmarking guidance for civilian professionals.
Conclusion:
The MICC Scale represents the first validated, internationally applicable tool for measuring military cultural competency across professional sectors. It offers governments, service providers, educators, and NGOs a standardised means to assess and strengthen culturally informed practice, supporting tailored training, workforce development, and cross-national collaboration to improve outcomes for military-connected communities.
Current and former military personnel, and their families, form a distinct cultural community shaped by the shared values, demands, and challenges of service life. Civilian professionals - including healthcare providers, educators, employers, and government staff - increasingly recognise the importance of military cultural competency: the ability to understand, engage with, and effectively support military-connected individuals. Yet few validated tools exist to measure this competency, and most are restricted to healthcare or designed for the American context. This study addresses the gap by developing and validating the Military Informed Cultural Competency (MICC) Scale, a cross-sector tool for use across the Five Eyes nations: Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Methods:
The research followed three stages:
(1) development of initial items from literature and competency domains;
(2) refinement through a three-round Delphi survey with 25 international experts to achieve consensus and establish content validity; and
(3) psychometric testing with over 1,700 civilian participants across five countries, recruited via Prolific (aged 18+, English-speaking, no military background). Psychometric analyses included internal consistency, inter-rater reliability, validity testing (content, face, convergent, construct, concurrent, and discriminant), and exploratory factor analysis, conducted overall and stratified by country.
Results:
Findings will present the final MICC Scale, which demonstrates strong internal consistency, stable factor structure, and psychometric validity across all nations. This presentation will include implementation recommendations and benchmarking guidance for civilian professionals.
Conclusion:
The MICC Scale represents the first validated, internationally applicable tool for measuring military cultural competency across professional sectors. It offers governments, service providers, educators, and NGOs a standardised means to assess and strengthen culturally informed practice, supporting tailored training, workforce development, and cross-national collaboration to improve outcomes for military-connected communities.
Biography
Dr Henry Bowen is Research and Training Lead at Military and Emergency Services Health Australia (MESHA) and Senior Research Fellow at Flinders University. Their research explores how service culture shapes wellbeing, with a particular focus on suicide postvention in military and first responder communities. Henry works closely with stakeholders, lived experience groups, and government to identify unmet needs, co-design tailored responses, and translate evidence into practice. Their projects span Australia and other 5EYES nations, advancing culturally appropriate approaches that strengthen support for personnel, families, and organisations during some of their most challenging times.
