A Psychometric Evaluation of the SASSI-3 in a College Sample

Abstract

Although the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory‐3 (SASSI‐3; F. G. Miller & L. E. Lazowski, 1999) is widely used with college students (L. Myerholtz & H. Rosenberg, 1998), it is unclear whether the SASSI‐3 is appropriate for use with this population. The authors investigated the SASSI‐3's psychometric capabilities in a college student sample (N = 230). They found that the SASSI‐3's psychometric properties are equal to or exceed those of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (M. L. Selzer, 1971), the CAGE (J. A. Ewing, 1984), and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale‐Revised (C. MacAndrew, 1965).

Systematic Review of the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test

“…Laux, Salyers, and Kotova () supported a unidimensional construct for the MAST in a sample that was nearly appropriately powered ( N = 230), although the single‐factor solution accounted for only 38.3% of the total item variance. One of the EFAs supported a three‐factor solution ( N = 196; Crook, Oei, & Young, ): Alcohol‐Related Disabilities, Help Seeking, and Recognition of Problem.…”

Detecting Faking Good and Faking Bad With the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory—3 in a College Student Sample

“…It should be noted that the range of IC is wide, and in some cases, the IC estimates are quite low. These estimates, however, are consistent with the SASSI-3 IC estimates from similar samples (e.g., Burck et al, 2008;Laux et al, 2005) as well as estimates for other scales created using the criterion-keyed method to test construction (Groth-Marnat, 2003). To determine whether differences between the four groups (i.e., according to instructions received) were present on the SASSI-3 scales, we conducted a multiple analysis of variance.…”

College Students' Experiences of Childhood Developmental Traumatic Stress: Resilience, First‐Year Academic Performance, and Substance Use

“…The SASSI‐3 has 67 true/false questions that comprise the Symptoms (SYM), Obvious Attributes (OAT), Subtle Attributes (SAT), Defensiveness (DEF), Supplemental Addiction Measure (SAM), Family Versus Control Subjects (FAM), Correctional (COR) and Random Answering Pattern (RAP) scales. The back side of the instrument contains two subscales, the 12‐item Face Valid Alcohol (FVA) and 14‐item Face Valid Other Drugs (FVOD) subscales (Laux, Perera‐Diltz, Smirnoff, & Salyers, ; Laux, Salyers, & Kotova, ). The SASSI‐3 is highly accurate, sensitive, and specific (all 94%), with low false positive and false negative rates (both 6%; Miller & Lazowski, ).…”