title: Identifying adult children of alcoholics: methodological review and a comparison of the CAST-6 with other methods.
abstract: Methods of identifying adult children of alcoholics are described and their psychometric properties are reviewed. These methods include self-report single questions and questionnaires and interview schedules. The CAST-6, a shortened version of the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test, is compared with a variety of these methods. The CAST-6 is confirmed as a useful brief screening measure. It was shown to be internally reliable, have good retest reliability and to agree well with other measures. Using a face to face interview as the comparison standard, however, a number of single questions performed equally as well as the CAST-6 and other more complex methods.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Hodgins
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Shimp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology / Q000534:rehabilitation; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010553:Personality Development; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016320:Substance Abuse Treatment Centers