title: Assessing alcohol abstinence self-efficacy in undergraduate students: psychometric evaluation of the alcohol abstinence self-efficacy scale.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Alcohol use is a major public health concern with respect to its impact on youth morbidity and mortality. Self-efficacy to abstain from alcohol use in young people is an important prevention and intervention strategy in future alcohol dependence. However, research on the assessment of self-efficacy to abstain from alcohol use among undergraduate students is almost non-existent in Ghana, apparently due to the unavailability of a standardised testing instrument. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor validity, structure, and reliability of the 20-item Alcohol Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale (AASES) in undergraduate students in Ghana.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Two hundred and fifteen undergraduate students studying in a private university with a mean age of 23.5 years participated in the study by completing the AASES. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that the data did not fit the initial four-factor AASES model. Subsequent exploratory factor analysis showed that the AASES is a unidimensional construct (in the total sample and a subsample of drinkers), contrary to findings found in western cultures. The AASES also had a high Cronbach's alpha. Although the AASES was unidimensional in this study, each of the original four-factor model also had high and acceptable Cronbach's alpha.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The original AASES structure was not confirmed in this study but a unidimensional factor was found suggesting that the AASES could be used as an instrument for assessing alcohol abstinence self-efficacy in undergraduate students in Ghana, although further validation research is needed in larger as well as in different samples.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Regent University College, Accra, Ghana. fglozah@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Franklin N
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Glozah
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Regent University College, Accra, Ghana.
authors.forename: Nana Ama Takyibea
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Adu
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Regent University College, Accra, Ghana.|School of Public Health, University of Health and Allied Sciences, Hohoe, Ghana.
authors.forename: Joyce
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Komesuor
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D064829:Alcohol Abstinence / Q000523:psychology*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000523:psychology*; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology*; D059026:Diagnostic Self Evaluation; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005869:Ghana; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D020377:Self Efficacy; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013334:Students / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014495:Universities / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D055815:Young Adult