Heidelberg drug sheet
The Heidelberg drug questionnaire is an inventory (questionnaire) for recording cognitive and behavioral risk and protective factors when using illegal psychoactive substances .
By means of the inventory (Raab, 2008), previous gaps in test diagnostics in the field of addiction prevention are to be covered. That is, the general diagnosis of substance use and addiction should be improved. The illegal substance groups cannabis , amphetamines , ecstasy , hallucinogens and cocaine , which have so far been little researched , are focused.
The inventory has a substance-specific structure and comprises ten modules that record the risk and protective factors of knowledge about and handling of these illegal substances. By building it up in modules, the inventory should be used for individual substance groups as required. Two modules were designed for each of the substance groups mentioned, which cover the following: risk-relevant knowledge about the substance in question (knowledge module) and - if experience has already been gained with the substance in question - consumption behavior (behavioral module).
state of research
A second survey is currently taking place after the first part of the research project was completed at the end of 2007. Current test statistical goals of the project are the standardization of the diagnostic instrument as well as the test statistical assurance and quality aspects (with regard to retest reliability , criterion-oriented validity , construct validity ). It is also important to standardize and evaluate the entire inventory.
Potential areas of application
The inventory will later find possible use in primary and secondary prevention programs, as well as in clinical diagnostics in the sense of screening for substance abuse or substance dependency and for any further research studies.
methodic procedure
The internet is used as the main survey platform. In addition, a nationwide postal survey is carried out. Furthermore, the instrument is used in cooperating outpatient and inpatient facilities throughout Germany. These include drug counseling centers, drug prevention projects and therapeutic facilities that focus on detoxification and / or long-term psychological therapy goals. A survey at secondary schools is also being planned.
Working group and research institution
The project is coordinated by Dipl. Psych. Corina Raab and Dipl. Psych. Jan Weinhold in the Center for Psychosocial Medicine of the Heidelberg University Hospital (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität). It is also supervised by Prof. Dr. med. Dipl. Psych. Rolf Verres, head of the Institute for Medical Psychology at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Funding and Financing
The research project is supported by the German National Academic Foundation. The survey is financially supported by the Fritz Thyssen Foundation, Hogrefe Verlag and the Institute of Medical Psychology at Heidelberg University Hospital.
Project duration
The project has been running since October 2007 and is expected to end in October 2011.
Results so far
1st survey 2006
At the beginning the aim was to secure the respective scales or modules with test statistics and finally to reduce them to an economic length. With regard to practical applications, a standardized and economical diagnostic instrument should be developed.
A longer Internet version of the drug sheet of the same name was tested on 2,400 participants. The average age of the participants was 25 years, the youngest participant was 11 years old, the oldest participant 62 years old. Just over half of the participants were male (51.3%).
All knowledge modules were processed more than 500 times, all behavior modules more than 100 times. The questions about cannabis were answered most frequently (knowledge and behavior module). The power of separation was judged to be good overall, the item difficulties on the other hand to be low overall and the selection indices to be average. The factor-analytical charges showed on average high main and low secondary charges and supported the item selection. The internal consistencies decreased due to the shortening of the test length. Six scales showed medium, four scales low consistency coefficients. Two validity coefficients were determined for each of the five behavior modules. Medium to very high validities were observed for all behavioral modules.
literature
- Corina Raab: Illegal Drugs: Construction of a modular inventory to record cognitive-behavioral risk and protective factors . Vdm Verlag Dr. Müller, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8364-7241-8 , pp. 348 .