Measuring drug abuse: The development of the Chinese drug involvement scale in Hong Kong

Abstract

Objective: The development of the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale for use in Chinese communities.

Method: A battery of scales, including the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale and three mental health measures, were administered to 152 students of 13 to 18 years of age. Reliability and validity analyses were performed. The refined version was then cross-validated on a group of identified drug abusers (N = 77).

Results: The final version of the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale is a 22-item scale. Validation results demonstrate that the Chinese Drug Involvement Scale has high reliability and a satisfactory level of validity.

Conclusion: The Chinese Drug Involvement Scale is a global assessment of an individual’s beliefs and values relating to drug use, apart from actual drug abuse behavior. The scale will be particularly useful for periodic assessments or outcome evaluation in treatment programs.