The consequences of alcohol measure: psychometric evaluation of a new measure of positive and negative consequences of alcohol use

Abstract

Alcohol is a widely used substance among university students. There are several measures that are used to assess the consequences of alcohol consumption. However, current instruments fail to capture several behavioural consequences established in literature. Negative consequences missing from existing measures are related to sexual behaviour, suicidal and non-suicidal selfinjury, and criminal and delinquent behaviour. In addition to negative consequences, positive consequences have been neglected from these measures. The goal of this research was to develop a new measure that addresses these gaps. In Study One, items from current and widely used measures in research and clinical applications, as well as newly developed items, were administered to a sample of undergraduate students. Factor analysis and item performance indices (e.g., item to total scale correlations, item variance, relationship to desirable responding) were used to construct a new scale. In Study Two, the new scale was administered to assess indices of reliability and validity. Although many of the new behavioural consequences (e.g., suicidality, eating behaviours, and aggression) were eliminated from the scale through empirical methods of item retention, the final scale was found to perform well across nearly all indices; there was strong evidence of construct, concurrent, and convergent validity. The final scale was comprised of positive and negative consequences, with an index for valence ratings.