Reliability and Validity of Adolescent Self-Reported Drug Use in a Family-Based Study: A Methodological Report

Abstract

Given the sensitive topic of drug abuse and the private nature of the family, researchers must overcome a number of methodological obstacles when studying drug abuse and the family. The purpose of this study was to determine whether adolescents would provide honest and accurate answers to drug use questions in the context of their homes with their families participating in the same survey. Although there is no direct objective validation of the self-report measures used in this study, evidence from the analysis of the survey data suggests that adolescent self-reports are, in most cases, reliable and valid, and that the setting in which respondents complete questionnaires does not, in general, result in systematic reporting bias.

Immediate and six-month effects of Project Ex Russia: A smoking cessation intervention pilot program

“…The test-retest correlation between the two measures collected approximately 5 weeks apart was 0.78 for future smoking expectation, 0.84 for lack of intention to ever quit smoking, 0.74 for motivation to quit smoking, 0.91 for mFTQ score, and 0.82 for monthly smoking. These coefficients are very similar to previous work (Graham et al, 1984;Needle, McCubbin, Lorence & Hochhauser, 1983;Sussman et al, 1995).…”

Six-month and one-year effects of Project EX-4: A classroom-based smoking prevention and cessation intervention program

“…Among the control subjects, the pretest to posttest change in mean value was −0.7% (p=0.66) for weekly smoking and −0.3% (p=0.89). These coefficients are very similar to previous work (Graham et al, 1984b;Needle et al, 1983;Stacy et al, 1990).…”

Associations of the dopamine D4 receptor gene VNTR polymorphism with drug use in adolescent psychiatric inpatients

“…A feedback form summarizing responses to clinical measures (with the exception of substance related information) was placed in each adolescent's inpatient file upon completion of the full assessment battery so that it could be reviewed by the adolescent's inpatient treatment team to aid in treatment and discharge planning. Substance related information was not shared because teens self-reported substance use has been shown to be accurate and reliable under conditions of confidentiality (Needle et al, 1983). This study was approved by the affiliated University and Hospital Institutional Review Boards.…”