Problem Statement: Among individuals aged 12 years or older, 14.3% (40.0 million) reporting the use of an illicit drug in the previous year. Given the prevalence of drug abuse, it is increasingly important to determine effective screening practices, treatment procedures, and best practices among various subpopulations to identify drug use-related…

This study examined the clinical utility of the Massachusetts Youth Screening Instrument--Second Version (MAYSI-2) among African American (AA) incarcerated youth and used White incarcerated youth as a comparison group. Data were analyzed for 314 incarcerated youth (193 AA offenders and 121 White offenders) of ages 13-17 years who were adjudicated…

"LifeSkills Training" (LST) is a popular drug prevention program shown to be effective at preventing youth substance use. The Middle School Health Survey (MSHS) is a questionnaire that was created by the developers of the LST curriculum to measure changes in knowledge and attitudes about drugs and life skills among youth. Despite the…

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of a measure of cannabis-specific Protective Behavioral Strategies (PBS), which assesses ways in which students may reduce cannabis-related risk. Participants: Respondents to the American College Health Association-National College Health Assessment II (N = 580) during Spring 2015. Methods:…

Objective: This comparative study evaluated the readability and test-retest reliability of a questionnaire designed to assess the attitudes, beliefs behaviours and sources of information about HIV/AIDS among young adults recruited from universities in the United States of America (USA), Turkey and South Africa. Design/Setting: The instrument was…

Objectives: Establish metric properties of the Neighborhood Inventory for Environmental Typology (NIfETy). Method: A total of 919 residential block faces were assessed by paired raters using the NIfETy. Reliability was evaluated via interrater and internal consistency reliability; validity by comparing NIfETy data with youth self-reported…

This study assesses the psychometric properties of the Condom Barriers Scale (CBS), an instrument originally designed to measure women's perceptions and attitudes regarding male condom use, with a sample of men at high risk for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Participants include 590 male patients in drug abuse treatment involved in a…

Although gender issues have been addressed in clinical drug abuse literature, very little research has focused on gender differences in terms of the psychometric properties of assessment instruments. If boys and girls interpret instruments differently, the accuracy of clinical evaluation, referral, and treatment decisions based on these measures…

Developed Adolescent Drug Involvement Scale (ADIS) to measure level of drug involvement, considered as continuum ranging from no use to severe dependency, in adolescents. Administered ADIS to 453 adolescents referred for treatment. Results indicated acceptable internal consistency and provide preliminary evidence of validity. Scores correlated…

The Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised were administered twice to 269 current drug abusers over an average time interval of 204.2 days. Overall, the study demonstrates that the two instruments have strong psychometric properties and that results from current drug abusers are reliable. (SLD)

This study provides preliminary psychometric support for a version of the Clinician-Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Scale (CAPS; D. D. Blake et al., 1990) adapted for use with patients with schizophrenia (CAPS-S; J. S. Gearon. S. Thomas-Lohrman, & A. S. Bellack, 2001). Nineteen women with schizophrenia and co-occurring illicit…

Describes development of Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis (ADAD), a 150-item instrument with a structured interview format, which produces a comprehensive evaluation of the life problem areas pertinent to the needs of adolescent drug abuse clients. A series of validity and reliability tests are described, along with characteristics of the…

No issue in schools and communities today commands the concern and urgency of the U.S. public as much as the dangers of alcohol and other drug (AOD) use among youth. This guide therefore provides descriptive information on the variety of surveys of student alcohol and other drug use currently available, and delineates the issues involved in…

An annotated bibliography of instruments designed to assess attitudes, behaviors, practices, knowledge, and correlations in the area of drugs (other than nicotine and alcohol) are described. Some of the instruments described are for use with general populations of students or adults and others are appropriate only for use with drug addicted or…

This 1-year project identified several goals to increase the awareness of chemical abuse among older women, older adults, and disabled people. The goals included: develop an assessment instrument; identify chemical health service providers; develop a process to coordinate outreach and case-finding; develop a guide for chemical health service…