Self-efficacy in alcoholics: clinical validation of the Situational Confidence Questionnaire.

Recent theory and empirical data suggest that self efficacy plays an important role in resistance to relapse for substance abusers. This study investigated the validity of the Situational Confidence Questionnaire (SCQ), a new instrument designed to measure self-efficacy expectations in purported high-risk drinking situations. The SCQ was administered to 46 short-term sober (STS) and 25 long-term sober (LTS) alcoholics. STS subjects were newly admitted alcohol treatment patients and LTS subjects had been abstinent for at least one year. Results indicated significantly higher self efficacy for LTS subjects than for STS subjects on total score and on 7 of the 8 subscales (p less than .001). Stepwise discriminant analysis yielded a linear combination of three subscales to account for 49% of the total variance; 92% of the LTS and 65% of the STS subjects were correctly identified by the classification function. These results extended earlier work with the SCQ using newly sober subjects and, in addition, provide encouraging validity data for the SCQ.