The Drinking-Related Locus of Control Scale: the factor structure with treatment-seeking outpatients.

OBJECTIVE

The psychometric properties of the Drinking-Related Locus of Control Scale (DRIE) were investigated when the distribution of DRIE scores taken from a sample of outpatient men was found to be skewed toward an internal locus of control, and numerous items on the scale showed little or no variability.

METHOD

The DRIE was administered to 93 treatment-seeking, male alcoholics meeting DSM-II-R criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence who attended a clinical screen and baseline assessment for a larger study designed to examine the efficacy of conjoint marital therapy in the treatment of alcoholism. Subjects were recruited through newspaper, radio and television announcements, letters to physicians, employee assistance programs, outpatient treatment programs and detoxification centers. Subjects were either married or in a cohabitating relationship with a nonalcoholic, female partner.

RESULTS

A factor analysis with a Procrustes rotation failed to replicate the three factor structure identified by previous researchers and consequently the reliability coefficients of the corresponding subscales were found to be low. Several items were endorsed as internal by more than 95% of the sample, showing little or no variability among subjects. An independent factor analysis, which excluded the items endorsed predominantly as internal, identified a single factor structure comprised of first person statements about helplessness and an inability to abstain from drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

One possible explanation for the difference in the factor structure is that the current investigation employed outpatient subjects rather than inpatient subjects, who have been the focus of most research on the control orientation of alcoholics to date. A second possible explanation may be found in the sociodemographic makeup of the current sample which is younger, better educated and has less severe drinkers than the sample of veterans in the study that established the original factor structure of the DRIE.