Development and validation of the Retrospective Alcohol Context Scale.
BACKGROUND
Few validated measures exist to capture the context and consequences of specific drinking events among college students.


OBJECTIVE
This study sought to describe the development and validation of the Retrospective Alcohol Context Scale (RACS), a 30-day measure of drinking context among college students.


METHODS
A sample of 169 college students completed daily alcohol assessments for 30 days and completed the RACS at follow-up.


RESULTS
The RACS captured fewer negative consequences than daily assessments; however, high agreement was observed on context variables.


CONCLUSIONS
Results support the validity of the RACS as a measure of drinking context among college students. The RACS may be most useful when information about drinking needs to be collected under limited time and resources.


CONCLUSIONS
Further research is needed to examine the RACS among more diverse, probability samples and over longer time periods.
Mays
Darren
D
Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education, Emory University, Rollins School of Public Health, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. dmmays@sph.emory.edu
Usdan
Stuart
S
Arriola
Kimberly Jacob
KJ
Weitzel
Jessica Aungst
JA
Bernhardt
Jay M
JM