Stages of Change Assessments in Alcohol Problems: Agreement Across Self- and Clinician-Reports

A number of self-report scales and "algorithms" have been developed to measure stage of change in alcohol problems. These methods rely on client self-reports, but an alternative approach is to use clinician judgments. The purpose of this investigation was to compare approaches including a newly developed Readiness to Change Questionnaire - Clinician Version (RCQ-CV). Clients being assessed for alcohol treatment (N = 64) completed SOCRATES, the Readiness to Change Questionnaire (RCQ), a social desirability scale, and a stage of change algorithm. Clinicians completed the RCQ-CV and provided a simple assessment of stage of change. The agreement among the alternative methods was generally good with the continuous measures, including agreement between scales, between clients and clinicians, and between experienced clinicians and trainees. Agreement among categorical stage assignments was poor. The RCQ-CV shows promise as a clinical and research tool.