A brief screening instrument for assessing parental alcoholism in college student populations

The Children of Alcoholics Short Screening Instrument (CASSI), a four-item Likert-type scale, was developed to fulfill the need for a screening instrument to identify children of alcoholics (COAs) in college student populations. A sample of 369 college students was surveyed to assess the psychometric properties of the CASSI; the scale had a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .94 and a 4-week test-retest reliability of .81. The CASSI correlated significantly with the Children of Alcoholics Screening Test (CAST), which supported its concurrent validity. The CASSI appears to be a promising research tool for identifying COAs, particularly among college student populations.