Clements Andrea D, Cyphers Natalie, Whittaker Deborah L, McCarty Brett
Department of Psychology, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, United States.
Uplift Appalachia, Johnson City, TN, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Oct 18;12:733913. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.733913. eCollection 2021.
Addiction has been a global health crisis over recent decades and worsened substantially during COVID-19 lockdowns. We report on the development, validation, and findings from an instrument developed to assess the readiness of churches in the Appalachian Highlands to address addiction. The Church Addiction Response Scale (CARS) is a 41-item, three section measure assessing "What are your views about addiction?" (14 items), "What are your views about interacting with people who are addicted to drugs?" (11 items), and "What do you think the church's role is in addressing addiction?" (16 items). The CARS was found to be unidimensional with strong internal consistency and initial evidence of construct validity was positive. Most respondents reported willingness to assist people living with addiction, but many reported that they felt underprepared, thus were not ready. Areas of preparation were largely those that could be addressed through training, such as understanding the physiology and psychology of addiction, available treatment options, and how to avoid doing harm. Thus, with adequate training, the likelihood of equipping a church-based workforce to provide support for people living with addiction seems attainable.
近几十年来，成瘾一直是一场全球健康危机，在新冠疫情封锁期间情况大幅恶化。我们报告了一项用于评估阿巴拉契亚高地各教会应对成瘾问题准备情况的工具的开发、验证及研究结果。教会成瘾应对量表（CARS）是一项包含41个条目的三部分测量工具，用于评估“你对成瘾的看法是什么？”（14个条目）、“你对与吸毒成瘾者互动的看法是什么？”（11个条目）以及“你认为教会在应对成瘾问题中应扮演什么角色？”（16个条目）。研究发现CARS具有单维度性，内部一致性强，且初步的结构效度证据呈阳性。大多数受访者表示愿意帮助成瘾者，但许多人表示他们觉得准备不足，因此尚未做好准备。准备工作的领域主要是那些可以通过培训来解决的方面，比如了解成瘾的生理和心理、可用的治疗选择以及如何避免造成伤害。因此，通过充分的培训，让教会工作人员有能力为成瘾者提供支持似乎是可以实现的。
