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Mapping the continuum of alcohol problems in college students: a Rasch model analysis.

Kahler CW, Strong DR, Read JP, Palfai TP, Wood MD

Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. christopher_kahler@brown.edu

The authors conducted Rasch model (G. Rasch, 1960) analyses of items from the Young Adult Alcohol Problems Screening Test (YAAPST; S. C. Hurlbut & K. J. Sher, 1992) to examine the relative severity and ordering of alcohol problems in 806 college students. Items appeared to measure a single dimension of alcohol problem severity, covering a broad range of the latent continuum. Items fit the Rasch model well, with less severe symptoms reliably preceding more severe symptoms in a potential progression toward increasing levels of problem severity. However, certain items did not index problem severity consistently across demographic subgroups. A shortened, alternative version of the YAAPST is proposed, and a norm table is provided that allows for a linking of total YAAPST scores to expected symptom expression.

Published 5 January 2005 in Psychol Addict Behav, 18(4): 322-33.
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