Kc. Winters et al., FURTHER VALIDATION OF NEW SCALES MEASURING ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG-ABUSE, Journal of studies on alcohol, 54(5), 1993, pp. 534-541
The Personal Experience Inventory (PEI) is a recently developed self-r
eport inventory that measures problem severity and psychosocial risk f
actors associated with adolescent alcohol and other drug involvement.
Although previous studies have provided initial support for the psycho
metric properties of the PEI, this validity evidence was based on unco
ntrolled studies. The present study examined the concurrent validity o
f the PEI on a new sample using more controlled research procedures. R
esults indicated that the PEI Basic Problem Severity scales were signi
ficantly related to groups defined by DSM-III-R criteria for substance
use disorders and by treatment referral recommendations. Also, the ma
in PEI Problem Severity scale, the Personal Involvement scale, correct
ly classified a significantly greater proportion of participants into
referral subgroups than would be expected given the base rates for the
sample. This evidence provides additional support for the validity of
the PEI as a problem severity measure of adolescent alcohol and other
drug use.