Evaluation of Alcohol and Other Drug Use and the Influence of Social Desirability

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the evaluation of alcohol and other drug use by what has been called direct measures, that is, scales that include obvious or explicit items on consumption, indirect measures, composed of camouflaged or nonobvious items on consumption, and the social desirability construct. The following use and/or addiction scales were given to a sample of 506 university students of both sexes: the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), Addiction Acknowledgment Scale (AAS), CAGE Alcohol Questionnaire, Addiction Potential Scale (APS), MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale-Revised (MAC-R), and a self-report on alcohol and other drug use designed for this study. The relationships between these scales and the social desirability construct, measured with the Edwards Social Desirability Scale (DS) and the Paulhus Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) were also explored. Although the results do not allow us to arrive at a conclusion as to which scales are the most valid for evaluating the use of alcohol and other drugs, the data do show adequate convergent validity. The correlations found among the use and social desirability scales employed were negative and statistically significant.