Compare methods

	Client Satisfaction Questionnaire	Program Evaluation in Social Work
Field	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1979	2004
Originator	Daniel Larsen, C. Clifford Attkisson & colleagues	Evaluation-research tradition (Rossi, Lipsey, Freeman); social-work application by Royse, Thyer & Padgett
Type	Brief standardized measure of client satisfaction with services	Systematic assessment of the need, design, implementation, and outcomes of a program
Seminal source	Larsen, D. L., Attkisson, C. C., Hargreaves, W. A., & Nguyen, T. D. (1979). Assessment of client/patient satisfaction: Development of a general scale. Evaluation and Program Planning, 2(3), 197–207.	Rossi, P. H., Lipsey, M. W., & Freeman, H. E. (2004). Evaluation: A Systematic Approach (7th ed.). SAGE Publications. ISBN: 9780761908944
Aliases	CSQ, CSQ-8, Client Satisfaction Scale, Consumer Satisfaction Questionnaire	Social Program Evaluation, Human Services Program Evaluation, Outcome and Process Evaluation, Evaluation Research (Social Work)
Related	4	4
Summary	The Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ) is a brief, standardized self-report measure of how satisfied clients are with the human services they receive, most commonly used in its eight-item form, the CSQ-8. Developed by Daniel Larsen, C. Clifford Attkisson, and colleagues in 1979, it produces a single satisfaction score that programs use as a consumer-perspective indicator of service quality, complementing outcome measures by capturing whether clients found the service helpful, of good quality, and worth recommending.	Program evaluation in social work is the systematic application of social-science methods to judge a program's need, design, implementation, outcomes, and efficiency, in order to improve programs and inform decisions about them. Drawing on the evaluation-research tradition of Rossi, Lipsey, and Freeman and adapted for social work by Royse, Thyer, and Padgett, it spans a hierarchy of evaluation questions — from whether a program is needed and well-conceived to whether it is delivered as intended, produces the intended outcomes, and is worth its cost.