Metacognitive beliefs about alcohol use: development and validation of two self-report scales.

The goal of this research was to develop clinical assessment tools of positive and negative metacognitive beliefs about alcohol use. In Study 1 we constructed two scales and conducted preliminary factor analyses. Studies 2 and 3 investigated the predictive validity and temporal stability of the scales. Study 4 examined the factor structure, predictive validity and classification accuracy of the scales in a clinical sample. The Positive Alcohol Metacognitions Scale (PAMS) and the Negative Alcohol Metacognitions Scale (NAMS) were shown to possess good psychometric properties, as well as predictive validity and classification accuracy, in both clinical and community populations. The scales may aid future research into problem drinking and facilitate clinical assessment and case formulation.