The Validity of Self-Reported Drug Use in Survey Research: An Overview and Critique of Research Methods

Abstract

Since illicit drug use is by definition illegal, the tasks of measuring incidence and prevalence and charting the course of the epidemic have fallen to survey researchers over the past 30 years. Although survey methods have obvious advantages over indirect measures such as arrests, seizures, and treatment admissions, they are frequently criticized because they rely on valid self-reporting of sensitive and highly stigmatized behavior. Validation studies conducted before the mid-1980s involving known samples of drug users or urinalysis techniques suggested that drug use was fairly accurately reported in self-report surveys. However, more recent validation studies conducted with criminal justice and former treatment clients using improved urinalysis techniques and hair analyses demonstrate that self-report methods miss a lot of recent drug use. A review of the research literature suggests that neither self-reports nor bioassays are wholly accurate, and both have inherent problems. However, because self-report measures are necessary to understand the complexity of causal and correlational attributes of drug abuse, it is necessary to determine what can be done to improve valid self-reporting. This chapter examines the research literature on validation studies to provide an overview of what is known about the accuracy of selfreported drug use.

Drug use in the social networks of heroin and cocaine users before and after drug cessation

“…However, reviews of self-report drug data suggest that it has a moderate to strong degree of reliability and validity (Darke, 1998;Harrison, 1997). The reduction in network members overall in the study may be indicative of a reporting bias with time.…”

Historical Change in the Link between Adolescent Deviance Proneness and Marijuana Use, 1979–2004

“…Our use of adolescent self-reports of drug use raises the potential that our measurement of marijuana use lacked some accuracy as a result of situational and social desirability biases (Harrison, 1997). However, recent evaluations of the validity and reliability of MTF measures suggest that MTF drug use reports show high levels of test-re-test reliability, construct validity and predictive validity (Harrison, 1997).…”

“…However, recent evaluations of the validity and reliability of MTF measures suggest that MTF drug use reports show high levels of test-re-test reliability, construct validity and predictive validity (Harrison, 1997). On a related note, questions have been raised regarding the degree to which MTF substance use data conform to findings of other epidemiological surveys (Gfroerer, Wright, & Kopstein, 1997).…”

The opinion of adolescents and adults on Dutch restrictive and educational alcohol policy measures

“…Besides that, the alcohol consumption is based on self-reporting, which means that the amount of drinking is not necessarily the true amount of alcohol consumed. Despite this concern, self-reported questionnaires tend to give better valid data than interviews in which respondents have to give their answers verbally [25]. Regarding the scale to interpret the opinion on educational measures, it consisted of only two items which is relatively low.…”