A New Brief Screen for Adolescent Substance Abuse

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To develop a brief alcohol and other drug (AOD) screening test for adolescents. METHODS: A 9-item test was constructed by combining and modifying items from several AOD assessments, and administered concurrently with the Personal Involvement With Chemicals Scale (PICS), the criterion standard. SETTING: A hospital-based adolescent clinic. SUBJECTS: Fourteen- to 18-year-old patients consecutively arriving for routine medical care who were known to have used AOD. MEASURES: Internal consistency of the 9 items was calculated using the Cronbach alpha. The relationship between the brief screen and PICS raw score was determined by stepwise linear regression analysis. The PICS T score has been shown to correctly classify substance abuse treatment need as no treatment (T<35), brief office intervention (T = 35-40), outpatient or short-term treatment (T = 41-54), and inpatient or long-term treatment (T> or =55). Sensitivity and specificity rates for predicting a PICS T score of 55 or higher were calculated from 2 x 2 tables. RESULTS: Ninety-nine adolescents were tested (70.7% female, 36.4% black, 32.3% white, 19.2% Hispanic, mean age, 16.3 years). The 9 items had good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = .79). Stepwise linear regression analysis identified 6 items whose total combined score was highly correlated with PICS (Pearson r = 0.84, P<.01). This model correctly classified 86% of subjects according to the PICS criteria. Two or more yes answers had a sensitivity of 92.3% and specificity of 82.1% for intensive AOD treatment need. The 6 items were arranged into a mnemonic (CRAFFT). CONCLUSIONS: Further research must confirm the test's psychometric properties in a general clinic population. However, CRAFFT seems promising as a brief AOD screening test.