Alcohol and Drug Use Screening among Justice-Involved Persons

ABSTRACT

(a) Objective: This study examined the reliability and validity of the Texas Risk Assessment System (TRAS) alcohol and drug use screeners. (b) Method: We examined internal consistency, inter-item correlations, and used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and item response theory (IRT) to assess item-specific information regarding a single latent dimension of substance use severity. (c) Results: Results supported the TRAS alcohol and drug screeners to measure a single dimension of alcohol and drug use severity. More specifically, the instruments appear to be effective screeners of moderate to severe alcohol use problems, and thus effective screeners for referral for further assessment and possible treatment. (d) Conclusions: Treatment can only be provided for problems that are well defined and diagnosed. Continuing evaluation of substance abuse screeners and assessment is important, especially for justice-involved persons. Effective screeners can lead to more people getting needed assessment and treatment. Recommendations were to drop one item on each screener due to redundancy.

KEYWORDS:

• Alcohol; drug; assessment; screening; item response theory

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, without whose help this study would not have been possible.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed in some way to the writing, analysis, and or discussion of this manuscript. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Spencer Bradshaw, Samuel Meeks, and Eugene Wang. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Spencer Bradshaw, Sarah Hirsch, Chloe Goad, and Eugene Wang. Kelly Chroback, along with Spencer Bradshaw and Eugene Wang, contributed to and approved revisions that resulted in the final manuscript.

Consent for Publication

This work is original and has not been published elsewhere, nor is it currently under consideration for publication elsewhere. If accepted, the authors provide their consent for publication in Contemporary Family Therapy.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.