title: A brief screening instrument for assessing parental alcoholism in college student populations.
abstract: The Children of Alcoholics Short Screening Instrument (CASSI), a four-item Likert-type scale, was developed to fulfill the need for a screening instrument to identify children of alcoholics (COAs) in college student populations. A sample of 369 college students was surveyed to assess the psychometric properties of the CASSI; the scale had a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .94 and a 4-week test-retest reliability of .81. The CASSI correlated significantly with the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST), which supported its concurrent validity. The CASSI appears to be a promising research tool for identifying COAs, particularly among college student populations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Education, East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Vail-Smith
authors.forename: S M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Knight
authors.forename: T W
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Durham
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016241:Child of Impaired Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D015144:Southeastern United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D013333:Student Health Services; D013334:Students