A comparison of paper vs computer-assisted self interview for school alcohol, tobacco, and other drug surveys

School surveys of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use play an impor tant role in prevention programs and policy development. Improving the qual ity of such data collection is critical. Most surveys are conducted with pa per and pencil (PAP) instruments, but computer-assisted self interviews (CA SI) are now being developed and there is some evidence that they elicit hig her rates of positive responses to sensitive questions than traditional mea sures. The present study examines whether ATOD school surveys using CASI ar e feasible and improve the quality of data. Seventh, ninth, and eleventh gr ade students in two California communities were randomly assigned to PAP or to CAST (n = 2296). The findings indicate that while CAST did not increase reported rates of substance use over PAP, it significantly improved the sp eed of data processing and decreased the incidence of missing data. CASI wa s well accepted by students and school staff despite problems such as lack of computer resources. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.