THE ALCOHOLICS-ANONYMOUS AFFILIATION SCALE - DEVELOPMENT, RELIABILITY, AND NORMS FOR DIVERSE TREATED AND UNTREATED POPULATIONS

Affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an important variable to measure in many clinical and research activities. This paper reports on the development of an AA affiliation scale, and demonstrates its ut ility in a sample of 927 alcohol treatment seekers and 674 untreated p roblem drinkers. The scale is short (9 items), covers a range of AA ex periences, and is internally consistent across diverse demographic gro ups, multiple health services settings, and treated and untreated popu lations. The validity of the scale is supported by the findings that t reatment seekers report significantly higher AA affiliation than do un treated problem drinkers, and inpatients report higher affiliation tha n outpatients. Potential clinical and research applications of the sca le are proposed.