Development and Validation of the Recognizing Addictive Disorders Scale: A Transdiagnostic Measure of...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry and Behavioral Science
• Psychometrics
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Substance use disorders and behavioral addictions frequently co-occur in clinical populations.
• Existing self-report measures often fail to capture the full spectrum of addictive conditions.
• A validated transdiagnostic measure is needed to assess diverse addictive behaviors.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate the Recognizing Addictive Disorders (RADs) scale, a brief, transdiagnostic self-report measure.
• To assess the reliability and validity of the RADs scale in a diverse community sample.
• To provide a tool for identifying a range of addictive behaviors in clinical settings.

Main Methods:

• Item generation and evaluation in Study 1.
• Exploratory factor analysis on an online community sample (N=300) in Study 2.
• Confirmatory factor analysis on an independent online community sample (N=427) in Study 3 to validate the factor structure.

Main Results:

• The RADs scale demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha = .92).
• Confirmatory factor analysis supported the scale's factor structure (CFI = .997, TLI = .997, RMSEA = .030).
• The scale showed strong construct validity, correlating highly with a related transdiagnostic addiction measure (r = .72).

Conclusions:

• The findings support the preliminary validity and reliability of the RADs scale as a brief, transdiagnostic measure of addiction.
• The RADs scale can identify diverse addictive behaviors, including non-substance-related issues.
• This measure may enhance treatment planning for individuals with substance use disorders by identifying co-occurring behavioral addictions.