The Involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous Scale - Short Form: Factor Structure & Validation

Abstract

Background: The aim of this research was to examine the psychometrics of a short form version of the multidimensional Involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous scale (IAA-SF) by assessing the factor structure, internal consistency, and predictive validity. While there are several existing measures of involvement in Alcoholics Anonymous, many are either unidimensional or are limited in their ability to gather variation in the level of involvement in the different dimensions of 12-step programs. Objective: To achieve our aim, we used exploratory and principal axis factor analysis, correlation, and logistic regression with two unique and diverse samples. Longitudinal data were collected from a northern Illinois sample of 110 post-treatment adults, and cross-sectional data were from a random sample of 296 recovery home residents in the United States. Results: Results from the first sample suggested three exploratory factors (Principles Involvement, Social Involvement, and Spiritual Involvement) that were concordant with the proposed conceptualization and were then confirmed in the second sample. A 2nd order factor of global involvement was also found. All subscales demonstrated good to excellent internal consistency and were moderately associated with AA affiliation. Global and social involvement predicted greater odds of abstinence 2 years later, but principles and spiritual involvement did not. Conclusion: Overall results suggest the IAA- SF is a valid and reliable 12-item instrument for assessing involvement in the AA program, and the differential prediction suggests potential utility for a multidimensional approach to 12-step involvement.

Keywords:

• 12-step
• Alcoholics Anonymous
• psychometrics
• validity
• Oxford house
• recovery

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. All procedures followed were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1964 and its later amendments. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study.

Additional information

Funding

Research in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Drug Abuse and National Institute on Alcohol and Alcoholism of the National Institutes of Health under award numbers DA032195, DA019935, and AA012218. Award # AA012218 provided support for Sample 1 data collection. Award #DA032195 provided support for Sample 2 data collection. Both awards #DA032195 and #DA019935 provided support for analysis and manuscript preparation. Dr. Vest was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number T32DA035165. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Funders had no role in the study design, data collection, analysis, interpretation, manuscript preparation, or decision to submit for publication.