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Substance use disorder symptoms: evidence of differential item functioning by age.

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: This study examined the applicability of substance abuse diagnostic criteria for adolescents, young adults, and adults using the Global Appraisal of Individual Need's Substance Problems Scale (SPS) from 7,408 clients. Rasch analysis was used to: 1) evaluate whether the SPS operationalized a single reliable dimension, and 2) examine the extent to which the severity of each symptom and the overall test functioned the same or differently by age. Rasch analysis indicated that the SPS was unidimensional with a person reliability of .84. Eight symptoms were significantly different between adolescents and adults. Young adult calibrations tended to fall between adolescents and adults. Differential test functioning was clinically negligible for adolescents but resulted in about 7% more adults being classified as high need. These findings have theoretical implications for screening and treatment of adolescents vs. adults. SPS can be used across age groups though age-specific calibrations enable greater precision of measurement.

Source: PubMed

Authors: Kendon J Conrad, Michael L Dennis, Nikolaus Bezruczko, Rodney R Funk, Barth B Riley

Institutions: University of Illinois Chicago, Chestnut Health Systems

Language: English

Topic: Psychometric Methodologies and Testing

Subfield: Management Science and Operations Research

Field: Decision Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Drug Abuse

Awards: Early Re-Intervention Experiment2(ERI-2), Effectiveness of Assertive Aftercare for Youth, Smartphone Addiction Recovery Coach for Young Adults (SARC-YA) Experiment, Adolescent Outpatient & Continuing Care Study (AOCCS)