are clear. It is very efficient in that it is brief and appears to provide good resolution of individual differences in drinking problems along the entire continuum of problems assessed by the scale. On the other hand, limitations include the relatively little work done on it to date for example, the scale properties should be examined in more diverse samples of students with respect to variability in age, type of campus, etc. and the fact that brief measures, by necessity, will not assess every type of problem that may be of interest to the person doing the evaluation. Furthermore, external validation is limited and there is an absence of replication across diverse samples and settings, which could limit intervention recommendations."
"This manuscript simply shows that there is a reliable ordering of alcohol problems in college students that can be efficiently measured," said Kahler. "The measure should be useful in comparing predictors of alcohol problems in college, measuring response to alcohol interventions, and tracking changes in alcohol problems throughout college. The relative ordering of the items is interesting as it may suggest that certain problems are likely to occur earlier in a drinking career than other problems, although this study could not directly test this possibility."
Sher believes the new scale can be used in a number of different applications, including self-assessment, surveillance of alcohol problems on campus, and as a treatment-needs change measure. "More work is required, however, to have a clear sense of the meaning of different scores on the scale," he said.
Kahler and his colleagues plan to continue refining their new scale. "We want to see whether the ordering of items in their relative severity that is, their relative rarity of occurrence among regular drinkers reflects a developmental progression," he said. "For example, do certain alcohol problems reliably occur earlier in one's drinking care
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14-Jul-2005
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