Group Comparisons of Coping Self-Efficacy Between Alcohol and Cocaine Abusers Seeking Treatment

The Drug-Taking Confidence Questionnaire (DTCQ; H. M. Annis & G. Martin, 1985 ) assesses situation-specific coping self-efficacy for resisting the use of a particular substance of abuse. This article extends previous research ( S. M. Sklar, H. M. Annis, & N. E. Turner, 1997 ) by testing the factorial invariance of the DTCQ on a sample of 344 alcohol and 253 cocaine clients. The results confirmed that the 8-factor model based on G. A. Marlatt and J. R. Gordon's (1985) high-risk categories for relapse provided a remarkably similar fit across both samples. Alcohol clients were less confident in their ability to resist using than cocaine clients in interpersonal conflict situations, whereas cocaine clients expressed less confidence in temptation-related situations. For both samples, women were more confident than men in positive situations. The findings demonstrate that the DTCQ is sensitive to different situational patterns of self-efficacy between alcohol and cocaine clients and between men and women.