The psychometric development and initial validation of the DCI-A short form for adolescent therapeutic community treatment process.
The 5-factor client-report Dimensions of Change in Therapeutic Communities Treatment Instrument-Adolescent (DCI-A) was developed to assess adolescent substance abuse treatment process in the therapeutic community (TC). The goal of this study was to use bifactor modeling to derive a unidimensional DCI-A short-form (DCI-A-SF) that would represent content from the original DCI-A factors. Data are from 442 adolescents receiving treatment at one of seven residential TC programs. Bifactor analyses suggested selection of seven DCI-A items to comprise the short form. Three items are from the treatment motivation factor, and one item was selected from each of the remaining four factors. Confirmatory factor analysis suggested that the 7-item DCI-A-SF is strongly unidimensional, and unidimensional IRT analysis of the items indicated good internal consistency. A structural equation model that demonstrates the mediating relationship of DCI-A-SF with other measures, including demographic and pre-treatment characteristics, and subsequent treatment completion, provides preliminary evidence of internal validity.
RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138. Electronic address: bstucky@rand.org.
Brian D
BD
Stucky
RAND Corporation, 20 Park Plaza Suite 920, Boston, MA 02116.
Maria Orlando
MO
Edelen
RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
Christine A
CA
Vaughan
RAND Corporation, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138.
Joan S
JS
Tucker
Phoenix House Foundation, 164 West 74th Street, New York, NY 10023.
Jennifer
J
Butler
D000293:Adolescent; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009042:Motivation; D011594:Psychometrics; D012114:Residential Treatment; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013808:Therapeutic Community; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
DCI; Psychometrics; Substance abuse; Therapeutic community; Treatment process