16PF items discriminating recidivists and long-term recovered polyaddicts

Area of Science:

• Psychological assessment
• Addiction studies
• Personality research

Background:

• Cattell's 16PF test is a widely used personality inventory.
• Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a global fellowship for individuals recovering from alcoholism.
• Understanding personality traits associated with recovery and relapse is crucial in addiction research.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how responses on Cattell's 16PF test are influenced by members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• To identify specific 16PF items that differentiate between individuals who relapse and those who maintain long-term sobriety within an AA population.
• To explore potential predictor items for addiction and recovery.

Main Methods:

• Administered Cattell's 16PF test to 83 members of Alcoholics Anonymous.
• Analyzed response distributions for 187 test items.
• Compared response patterns between a group of 18 recidivists and 8 individuals maintaining sobriety over two years.
• Further compared recidivists to the entire AA group.

Main Results:

• Responses to 65 out of 187 items on the 16PF test were significantly skewed by the AA sample.
• Seventeen items showed significantly different distributions when comparing recidivists to those maintaining sobriety.
• An additional 14 items differed significantly when comparing recidivists to the broader AA group.

Conclusions:

• The personality profiles of individuals in Alcoholics Anonymous may differ from general populations, potentially skewing test results.
• Specific 16PF items show potential as predictors differentiating between relapse and sustained recovery in individuals with alcohol use disorder.
• Further research comparing AA members with non-drug-disadvantaged groups and non-AA recovering addicts is recommended to refine predictive scales.