Abstract

GOUVEIA, Valdiney V. et al. Scale of attitudes toward alcohol use: describing its psychometric parameters. Psicol. cienc. prof. [online]. 2009, vol.29, n.4, pp.672-685. ISSN 1414-9893.

This study aimed at knowing the evidences of validity and reliability of the attitudes toward the Alcohol Use Scale (ATAUS). The participants were 259 undergraduate students from João Pessoa, 21 years old average, most of them female (65.6%). They answered to demographic questions and filled the ATAUS, composed by four bipolar adjectives (positive-negative, like-dislike, good-nasty, and desirable-undesirable) rating in a scale of 9-points (-4 to +4). One component was observed according to the principal component analysis, accounting for 82.3% of the total variance, with Cronbach’s alpha of 0.93. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed adequate fit indexes, corroborating its one-factor structure. Moreover, it was observed the gender difference in the ATAUS’ scores, and this measure was positively and more strongly correlated with the alcohol use (convergent validity) than with the marijuana use (discriminant validity). These findings support the psychometric adequacy of the ATAUS. Thus, it can be used in future studies to assess the degree of favorability toward alcohol among young adults.

Keywords : Attitudes; Alcohol; Gender; Validity.

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