Assessing Alcohol Problems in College Students

Alcohol abuse among college students is prevalent, yet few instruments with sound reliability and validity are available to assess these problems in this population. As part of a large, baseline assessment battery for a prospective study of offspring of alcoholics, the 27-item Young Adult Alcohol Pr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of American college health 1992-09, Vol.41 (2), p.49-58
Main Authors: Hurlbut, Stephanie C., Sher, Kenneth J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
alcohol problems
Alcoholism
Alcoholism - diagnosis
college students
Diagnostic Interview Schedule
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Male
Problem drinking
Reproducibility of Results
Screening
screening test
Students
Surveys and Questionnaires
Universities
USA
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Summary:Alcohol abuse among college students is prevalent, yet few instruments with sound reliability and validity are available to assess these problems in this population. As part of a large, baseline assessment battery for a prospective study of offspring of alcoholics, the 27-item Young Adult Alcohol Problems Screening Test (YAAPST) was given to 490 freshmen at a large mid western university; approximately 9 months later, 482 subjects completed the scale again. In addition to asking about such traditional problems as experiencing blackouts and driving while intoxicated, the YAAPST included specific items relating to college experiences (eg, getting into sexual situations that were later regretted, missing classes, and receiving lower grades than usual). The YAAPST was designed to assess these drinking consequences over two different time frames, lifetime and past year, and also to indicate the frequency of occurrence during the past year. Results indicated that the YAAPST is a unidimensional scale with good psychometric properties (good internal consistency and test-retest reliability). Three different approaches were used to demonstrate the validity of the YAAPST. Findings supported criterion validity (with interview-based alcohol abuse/dependence diagnoses as the criterion), concurrent validity (comparing the YAAPST with other drinking measures), and construct validity (correlating the YAAPST with etiologically relevant personality, motivational, and peer influence variables). The YAAPST is a promising screening instrument for alcohol problems in college students. It has excellent psychometric properties and the potential to provide a range of useful information to the clinician or researcher.
ISSN:0744-8481
1940-3208
DOI:10.1080/07448481.1992.10392818