The Development and Initial Evaluation of the Survey of Readiness for Alcoholics Anonymous Participation

This article presents 5 studies related to the development and initial evaluation of the Survey of Readiness for Alcoholics Anonymous Participation (SYRAAP). The SYRAAP is a brief, multidimensional, self-administered instrument that assesses beliefs associated with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) participation. Study 1 generated 239 candidate items for potential inclusion in the instrument. Study 2 assessed the content validity of these items according to 3 criteria and identified a subset of 60 with the highest values on the criteria for further consideration. Study 3 produced a shorter version of the SYRAAP and evaluated its structure, internal reliability, and validity. Study 4 reevaluated the structure and internal reliability of the SYRAAP and yielded findings that were generally consistent with those from Study 3. Study 5 established stability reliability for the instrument. The collective findings indicated the SYRAAP can reliably and validly assess individual-level beliefs associated with AA participation. The potential use of the SYRAAP for researchers and clinicians, along with limitations of the work presented here, are discussed.