The personal experience inventory: An assessment of the instrument's validity among a delinquent population in Washington state

Abstract

The Personal Experience Inventory (PEI) is one of a small number of validated instruments for assessing the level and nature of substance abuse in adolescents. A challenge to substance abuse treatment is the complex problem of working with juvenile offenders. A preliminary question remains before case planning can be performed on this population: are assessment instruments, validated with a clinical treatment population, also valid with a chronic delinquent population? This paper describes the results of a study to validate the PEI with a study population of chronic delinquent adolescents institutionalized in the state of Washington. The results of this study suggest that the Personal Experience Inventory (PEI) can be a useful tool for the assessment of substance abuse among an offender population.