Psychometric evaluation of the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3 with Northern Plains American Indians

The efficacy of the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-3 (SASSI-3) was assessed among northern plains American Indians (AIs). The current study examined the efficacy of the SASSI-3 for identification of substance abuse in AIs. Northern plains AIs from 7 reservations participated in the study. The participants were either a clinical sample receiving substance abuse (SA) or mental health diagnoses from behavioral health clinicians and receiving outpatient treatment services or a community sample that had no substance abuse or mental health diagnoses and were not currently in treatment (no diagnosis). The internal consistency for Face Valid Alcohol (FVA), Face Valid Other Drugs, and Symptoms (SYM) subscales were excellent, and the consistency for the other subscales was moderate, ranging from .21 to 73. The results of the study suggest that the SASSI-3 has good positive predictive power (PPP) and negative predictive power (NPP), particularly when the criterion group substance abuse is larger in the sample. Additionally, the PPP and NPP varied depending on the decision rules. For the analysis that included individuals with just SA, the clinical group scored significantly higher than the no diagnosis group on all measures of the SASSI-3, except for Defensiveness. When the SA group included all individuals with the diagnosis (regardless of the comorbid diagnosis), the clinical group scored significantly higher than the no diagnosis group for all the SASSI-3 subscales. A discriminant examination of the standardized function coefficients indicated that the FVA and SYM subtests contributed the most to the function. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).