Development of a "Steps Questionnaire"

Thousands of men and women have begun their recovery from alcoholism through the support of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and its well-known "12-Step" program. The purpose of the present study was to develop a scale to measure alcoholics' levels of agreement with the first three of AA's 12 Steps and to test the relationship between sobriety and belief in these three steps. Using both factor analysis and Rasch analysis, two versions of a "Steps Questionnaire" were developed. A 96-member subset of the original subject pool was assessed quarterly for 1 year following inpatient treatment to determine the predictive validity of the questionnaire. The results of this study suggested that agreement with AA's first three steps can be measured and that agreement with AA's first step correlates with number of sober days posttreatment. The dichotomization of Steps Questionnaire scores into total agreement versus partial agreement with Step 1, and from this the reduction of uncertainty in the prediction of abstention over a lengthy follow-up period, provides support for AA's contention that total surrender to one's powerlessness over alcohol is part of the process of achieving abstention.