Validation of Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ): Portuguese Version

Abstract

Extant literature suggests that Portuguese college students frequently drinking alcohol and experience a variety of alcohol-related negative consequences. However, to our knowledge, there is no validated measure to assess negative consequences of drinking alcohol for college students in Portugal. This article describes a validation of the Portuguese version of the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire. Originally developed by Kahler, Strong, and Read (2005), this 24-item questionnaire is a widely used self-report measure with strong psychometric properties and validity for the evaluation of the negative consequences of drinking in college students. We collected data from 620 students at the University of Coimbra (Portugal). Participants completed (a) a background questionnaire, (b) the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), (c) the Daily Drinking Questionnaire - Revised (DDQ-R), and (d) the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire (B-YAACQ) translated into Portuguese as part of this study. Analyses showed that items fit a unidimensional Rasch model well with items infit statistics raging from .82 to 1.27, supporting using all items to create a total sum score of the Portuguese version of the B-YAACQ. The Portuguese version of the B-YAACQ showed adequate internal reliability (α = .87) and concurrent validity. Results support its use and integration in research on interventions targeted to reduce adverse effects associated with excessive drinking among Portuguese college students.