• There are currently three major self-report measures used to assess alcohol problems among college students.
• Researchers have created an alternative measure, the "Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire."
• Strengths of the new measure include its brevity and application across a range of drinking problems.

Heavy drinking by some students on U.S. college campuses is well documented; however, much remains unknown about the exact nature of problems caused by this drinking. There are currently three major self-report measures used to assess alcohol problems among college students: the Young Adult Alcohol Problems Screening Test (YAAPST), the College Alcohol Problems Scale (CAPS), and the Rutgers Alcohol Problem Index (RAPI). A study in the July issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research creates an alternative measure, the "Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire."

"A few self-report measures have been devised specifically to assess alcohol problems in college students such as the YAAPST and CAPS," said Christopher W. Kahler, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University and corresponding author for the study. The 27-item YAAPST includes items traditionally associated with problematic drinking, as well as items that might be especially prevalent in college students; and the eight-item CAPS focuses on two factors, social problems and personal problems. "The 23-item RAPI was developed using younger adolescents ages 12 to 21, but also has been widely used in college populations," said Kahler. "Its items were based upon existing questionnaires used in adolescent and adult research on alcohol problems."

While all three measures had clear strengths, said Kahler, analysis suggested that scales could be better designed for "dichotomous scoring" that is, symptoms present or absent and for measuring less sev
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14-Jul-2005

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