NCJ Number
200598
Journal
Addiction Volume: 98 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2003 Pages: 179-184
Date Published
February 2003
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study developed and then tested the validity of a scale designed to measure therapeutic attitudes among prison staff who work with drug abusers.
Abstract
The study used the model proposed by Cartwright (1980) for people who work with alcoholics to devise a new questionnaire with questions relevant to the prison environment and drug users. No such standardized instrument currently exists. A focus group that consisted of persons who work in a prison setting with drug users assessed Cartwright's questionnaire and agreed that with rewording, this tool could be used within the prison for those who work with drug abusers. The second stage involved refinement of the questionnaire through use in a survey. Each of 27 statements was followed by a five-item Likert scale. Both positively and negatively worded items were included to help avoid problems of response-set. The instrument is a three-dimensional, nine-item scale entitled the Prison Attitude to Drugs Scale (PAD). The three subscales measure confidence in skills (four items), personal rewards (three items), and job satisfaction (two items). The instrument was tested for validity in four prisons in southwest England. Participants were 252 prison staff (70-percent response rate), including 67 who participated in a test-retest (57-percent response rate). Test-retest correlations for the questions were above 0.7, with each factor having an internal coherence (coefficient alpha) of greater than 0.7. The testing concluded that the PAD is a reliable tool that can be used in the prison environment in drug treatment programs. 4 tables and 9 references