THE DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A SIMPATIA SCALE FOR HISPANICS ENTERING DRUG-TREATMENT

A 17-item simpatia scale was developed for use with Hispanic substance abusers using confirmatory factor analytic techniques in a sample of 144 daily opioid users. The overall scale had good internal consistenc y and demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. The simpatia scale was constructed to examine social attributes reflecting agreeabl eness, respect of others, and politeness. The Agreeableness subscale a ddressed issues related to agreeing with others, similarity of opinion s between self and others, and if clients openly disagreed with others . The Respect subscale addressed issues related to saying good things about others, trusting others, and treating others with respect. The P oliteness subscale addressed issues related to avoiding conflict with others, doing favors, and treating others as equals. A cross-validatio n study demonstrated that simpatia was positively related to social su pport, social conformity treatment service satisfaction, and client ra ting of counselor skills, whereas it was negatively related to hostili ty.