"AMS"
the ASAP II
Application
Launched!
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The ASUS-R, which contains all scales of the original ASUS, is a 96
item psychometric-based, adult self report survey comprised of 15
basic scales and three supplemental scales. It is appropriate for
clients 18 years or older, and may be self or interview
administered. The ASUS-R meets the needs of a self report instrument
that is an essential component of a convergent validation approach
to the assessment of patterns and problems associated with the use
of alcohol and other drugs (AOD).
The ASUS-R is designed to differentially
screen and assess an individual's alcohol and other drug use
involvement in ten commonly defined drug categories and to measure
the degree of disruptive symptoms that result from the use of these
drugs. There is also an AOD use benefits scale. The ASUS-R provides
a mental health screen, a scale that measures social non-conformity
and a scale that measures legal non-conformity. The ASUS-R also
provides measures of motivation and treatment readiness,
defensiveness and resistance to self-disclosure, and a measure of
self-perceived strengths. Three supplemental scales provided a
differential assessment of disruptive AOD use outcomes which are
subscales of the general DISRUPTION scale. The ASUS-R provides
measures of AOD involvement and legal conforming for the most recent
six month period the client has been in the community. The ASUS-R
rater scale allows a comparison of the evaluator's perception of the
client's drug use and abuse with the client's perception of that
use.
The ASUS-R can be used to provide guidelines for assessing
levels of AOD problems, abuse and dependence. It can also be used to
provide referral guidelines for various levels of services for
clients with a history of AOD and co-occurring problems, e.g.,
antisocial and criminal conduct, mental health concerns. It can be
used to assess during and post-treatment changes.
Extensive construct validation studies (e.g., perspective, criterion,
concurrent, predictive) have been done on the original ASUS and
current ASUS-R scales using many large samples with a total N of
over 40,000 respondents. Principal components analyses and Cronbach
alpha studies of each scale have demonstrated optimal internal
consistency reliabilites congruent with the item size of respective
scales. Scale independence has been demonstrated. Strong
correlations between the ASUS-R scales and external criterion
variables have been demonstrated (e.g., between DISRUPTION and
external criterion variables measuring substance use disruption and
symptoms). Simple linear and multiple-linear relationships between
the ASUS-R scales and perspective variables (age, gender, ethnicity,
marital status) support hypotheses around these relationships.
ASUS-R scales discriminate different samples with respect to
different levels of severity in the area of AOD, mental health and
antisocial problems. The User's Guides for the ASUS and the ASUS-R
provide a detailed summary of scale construct validation.
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| The ASUS-R is part of the SAM Computer Software Application. Click here for more information on the SAM Computer Software Application. |
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