The Adolescent Relapse Coping Questionnaire: psychometric validation

The present study was undertaken to assess the factor structure and psychometric validity of the Adolescent Relapse Coping Questionnaire (ARCQ). The ARCQ is designed to assess alcohol and other drug abusing adolescents coping with situations providing temptations for alcohol and other drug use.

This was a prospective longitudinal study of 136 (79 male) alcohol and other drug abusing adolescents who were an average of 16.9 years old. Consecutive admissions were recruited from two adolescent, inpatient alcohol and drug abuse treatment facilities. Subjects completed the ARCQ as part of a 1-year-posttreatment interview and were subsequently interviewed 2 years posttreatment.

Analyses yielded three coping factors which were evaluated for construct and criterion validity. Factor 1 contained generic cognitive and behavioral problem-solving strategies, Factor 2 represented self-critical cognitions and Factor 3 included abstinence-focused coping strategies. The factors had good internal consistency (alpha = .78 to .82) and collectively accounted for 40% of the variance in the principle components analysis. The abstinence-oriented coping factor was significantly correlated with current alcohol and drug use and measures of situation appraisal, and significantly predicted alcohol and drug use during the year following assessment.

The findings provide evidence for the psychometric validity of the ARCQ, provide convergent validation for the utility of the temptation-coping construct and further highlight differences between adult and teen addictive relapse.