An alcohol attitude scale for teen-agers

A scale was designed to measure the affective, cognitive, and conative components of teen-agers' attitudes toward the use of alcohol. Data collected from a representative sample of about 700 Indiana high school students were subjected to univariate and multivariate statistical analyses to evaluate scale performance and validity. Findings demonstrated that internal and external criteria were met at highly significant levels. Factor analysis identified four factors that describe the dimensionality of teen-agers' alcohol attitudes. Findings of discriminant function analysis of the data supported the results of univariate analyses and revealed one significant function that differentiated between drinker and nondrinker groups in terms of attitudes. The scale was a valid instrument for obtaining measures having dependable inferential value and was useful in analyzing teen-agers' attitudes toward alcohol use.