Psychometric study of an adolescent substance use scale

Abstract

Background: The study of drug use and other adolescent problem behaviours is approached from different preventive strategies. Schools are important as an environment in assessing the situation. Most instruments to evaluate this problem are limited in the type of drugs as well as in the implementation of related risk behaviours.Methods: This paper presents the psychometric study of a scale based on the ESTUDES survey to detect adolescent substance use, health consequences and challenging behaviours in educative contexts. FRIDA was selected to assess the concurrent validity. Participants were 1.264 students (M = 14.41, SD = 1.43) who participated voluntarily. Informed consent was requested. An exploratory factor analysis of the 19 selected items was carried out using the WLMSV method on tetrachoric correlation matrix and Geomin rotation with MPLUS was employed. Results: The results showed the scale consists of two factors: Factor I, substance abuse and health consequences, based on the use of illegal drugs, and Factor II, use of legal drugs and challenging behaviours.Conclusions: It is a short instrument for the detection of drug use, health consequences and challenging behaviours in the educational field.