Test Evaluation Paper (1)

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Test Evaluation 1 Evaluation of Adolescent Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory Kayla Faber PSYC 545, Liberty University 06/27/24

Test Evaluation 2 Evaluation of Adolescent Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory The Adolescent Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory -A2 (SASSI-A2) is a self- report questionnaire that measures the presence or absence of substance use disorders among 12- 18-year-olds (Cox, 2017; Whitman, 2017). The original Adolescent SASSI was developed in 1990 which was the adapted version of the SASSI that screened for substance abuse among adults in 1985 (Whitman, 2017). The purpose of the SASSI-A2 being developed was to overcome the obstacle of adolescents denying problematic use of alcohol and other drugs by asking obvious face-value questions and less obvious face-value questions about substance use (Whitman, 2017). The questionnaire has 106 items that include 72 true/false statements about substance misuse symptoms, family and social environment risks, attitudes and beliefs regarding alcohol and drug use, and subtle items designed to identify individuals with substance use problems even when the issues are unrecognized; and 28 four-point Likert scale assessing frequency, extent, and nature of substance abuse (Cox, 2017). The SASSI-A2 questionnaire is based on nine scales, Face Valid Alcohol (FVA), Face Valid Other Drug (FVOD), Family- Friends Risk (FRISK), Attitudes (ATT), Symptoms (SYM), Obvious Attributes (OAT), Subtle Attributes (SAT), Defensiveness (DEF), and the Supplemental Addiction Measure (SAM) (Whitman, 2017). Included in the questionnaire are six items that assess current and past substance abuse along with school information and legal involvement. This questionnaire can be administered through paper-pencil, computer-based, optical scanning, and online. The test requires a 4.4 reading level and an audio administration available to testees with a low reading level.

Test Evaluation 3 The normative scores on the SASSI-A2 were based on a sample of 856 adolescents from school and community youth programs. The normative sample lacks diversity as it has a poor representation of African American, biracial, and multiracial adolescents (Cox, 2017). Throughout a two-week interval, the overall test-retest reliability coefficient was .89 for the nine scales using a sample of 70 adolescents (Cox, 2017). Whitman (2017) also found good test-rest reliability with an overall coefficient of .75 for a two-week interval. According to Whitman (2017), this test needs to grow in construct validity and concurrent validity due to it not using enough items to screen effectively for all substance use disorders like the DSM. The SASSI-A2 needs to address the abuse of prescription drugs and psychotropic medications that are often misused differently than that of street drugs. The SASSI-A2 does have a high concurrent validity with 94% accuracy in identifying individuals with or without symptoms of substance use disorders (Cox, 2017). Justification for Choosing the Adolescent Substance Subtle Screening Inventory The first reason why I selected this test is because I currently work with adolescents who are suffering from Substance Use Disorder and due to this they have been placed at a behavioral treatment center. I often see them denying that they have a problem and that the drugs they are doing are not affecting them in any way. This test is relevant to my career goals because I would like to keep working with the at-risk youth in the age bracket for this test. I’m currently a residential counselor and I think a test like this can help me explain to them that alcohol and drugs are harmful and therefore I can keep them safe. This test would help me in the future as I become a counselor to realize that not every adolescent is the same when it comes to substance abuse. There will be similarities but there will also be differences when it comes to assessing adolescents with substance use disorders to ensure they get the right treatment program.

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