Data Quality in Evaluation of an Alcohol-Related Harm Prevention Program

Abstract

The authors report the reliability and convergent validity in a sample of college students for 27 composite scales and two items covering alcohol use, cigarette smoking, marijuana use, and other drug use; beliefs relating to alcohol use; perceived norms for alcohol-related behavior; harm prevention skills; intentions to take prevention action; harm prevention action taken; risk taken; experienced harm; and other health-related behaviors and person characteristics. Data quality assessment strategies and missing data procedures were illustrated for large, multivariate, longitudinal data sets. Results indicate 23 of the 27 composite scales had at least acceptable reliability, and the remaining 4 composite scales had at least marginally acceptable reliability. At least moderate construct validity was demonstrated for 25 scales.

Racial Differences in the Consequences of Childhood Maltreatment for Adolescent and Young Adult Depression, Heavy Drinking, and Violence

“…Moreover, while we used official records as well as self and parent reports of violent behavior and a well validated scale of depression, we relied only on self reports for heavy drinking. However, reliability and validity of self-reported substance use has been established in many studies (e.g., [35]). Also, we included only substantiated cases of maltreatment, which could under-estimate the extent of maltreatment and may be racially biased [36] (see note 3 ).…”

Exploring the Intersection of Neighborhood Racial and Economic Composition and Individual Race on Substance Use Among Male Adolescents

“…First, substance use was measured by self-report only, however, reliability and validity of self-report substance use data has been established in several studies (Graham et al, 2002). In addition, the sample came from a single urban area, and results may not generalize to adolescent male populations living in other urban or nonurban areas.…”

Influences of School Latino Composition and Linguistic Acculturation on a Prevention Program for Youths

“…To address missing data in our analysis, we use multiple imputation methods. These methods have been used previously in studies of program efficacy (Graham et al, 2002; Hecht et al, 2003). Although our missing data rate due to attrition was about 40% (1-1744/2894), there are no guidelines regarding how much missing data is too much (Gorelick 2004; Musil et al 2002; Tsikriktsis 2005; Kristman, Manno, and Côté 2004).…”