Assessing Motivation for Change: Preliminary Development and Evaluation of a Scale Measuring the Costs and Benefits of Changing Alcohol or Drug Use

This article describes the construction and preliminary evaluation of a scale (the Alcohol and Drug Consequences Questionnaire [ADCQ]) assessing the costs and benefits of changing an alcohol or drug problem. The ADCQ's costs and benefits subscales displayed good internal reliability (Cronbach alphas were .90 for the benefits subscale and .92 for the costs subscale). Furthermore, the ADCQ was significantly related to respondents' ratings of the importance of achieving their alcohol or drug treatment goal and to drinking at a 12-month follow-up. Measures assessing the costs and benefits of change appear to be useful indexes of client motivation and for predicting long-term change within the addictions.