Drug abuse during adolescence: presentation of a French Version of the ADAD

In the USA, several instruments have been developed in the last decade in o rder to evaluate substance use during adolescence. However, in Europe, and notably in the French speaking countries, there are no standardised instrum ents available either in the field of research or in the field of clinical activities The ADAD (Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis), a structured intervi ew was created by Friedman and Utada (1989) on the basis of the ASI (Addict ion Severity Index). It is widely used and recognised as an adequate invest igation tool in this double-perspective. In this article a French version o f the 150-item instrument is presented. Nine life problem areas that are of ten relevant to the treatment needs of adolescent drug abusers are investig ated: medical status, school history and status, employment section, social activities and peer relations, family background and relationships, psycho logical status and problems, delinquent/criminal behaviour, drug and alcoho l use. The ADAD is administered individually. A population of Swiss French speaking drug user adolescents (N=72; age=13-19 yrs) has been included in t he study. Statistical analyses compared to the results obtained by the inst rument's authors, show that it provides diversified data or? the adolescent life experience, notably in reference to drug use. Moreover, psychometric performances of the instrument are quite satisfactory, considering as well severity ratings as the composite scores.