Case Study: Social Desirability Construct Of Substance Abuse Reporting
Social Desirability Construct of Substance Abuse Reporting
Rae Sherk
Ashford University
PSY 326
Dr. Gary Boyles
July 1, 2013
Social Desirability Construct of Substance Abuse Reporting
I. Introduction
Drug addiction is a disease with serious consequences. The causes of drug addiction can be complex. Risk factors include family disposition, neighborhood, and social acquaintances. The intended results are the ultimate high, euphoria, and numbness drugs can provide. It is widely known, however, that these results are only temporary solutions to real world problems. The long term psychological impacts of the stress and strain that drug abuse causes on the brain can be debilitating. However, the physical effects are not the only repercussion of drug addiction. While there are people that have the ability to use prescription and recreational drugs no harmful effects, some individuals can become addicted to a certain drug after using it just one time and the social effects can be just as …show more content…
harmful as the physical ones because it can cause severe depression, isolation, and irreparable damage to familial relationships.
Drug addiction is a common problem that almost everyone can say they have encountered in their lives in one way or another. Everyone knows someone, has a family member, or has experienced themselves the black hole that is drug addiction. Working in the child welfare field it is easy to see that drug addiction is a prevalent extenuating factor of child abuse and neglect. It is not uncommon to see mothers and fathers chose drugs over their children. The psychical addiction is so immense that they cannot meet the expectations of appropriate social norms in parenting.
When substance abuse becomes a debilitating factor in someone’s life, they may seek out treatment either on their own or because they are court ordered. Prior to treatment a drug and alcohol evaluation must be completed to determine treatment options. Unless accompanied by past law enforcement records or urinalysis results, these evaluations rely solely on the self reports of the client. According to Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, and García Montes, “Although evaluation with self-reports has been, and still is, the most widespread practice for the evaluation of alcohol and other drug use, it has also received severe criticism because of its low validity” (page 1, 2009). Since drug treatment is often the primary service that needs to be completed in order for parents to regain custody of their children, it is extremely important for them to be completely honest when being evaluated. This is difficult given the shame and stigma that comes along with losing your children to the system. According to Oliveras and Kaufman, in one particular study it is, “… estimated that of parents required to receive substance abuse treatment as part of their service plan, 64% complete an intake for services, 50% attend some treatment, and only 13% complete treatment” (Page 26, 2011). This is staggering considering the reunification rates of children with parents who do not satisfy their service plan is very low. Taking these numbers into consideration, it is vital to take into account the social desirability construct when discussing the self reports of parents in substance abuse related cases.
This purpose of this paper is to critique a research study that evaluates the influence that social desirability has on self reports of drug use and abuse, Evaluation of Alcohol and
Other Drug Use and the Influence of Social Desirability. The study uses five different drug use evaluation scales, a self report are measured by two social desirability constructs, the Edwards Social Desirability Scale (DS) and the Paulhus Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). The study also explores the difference in direct and indirect measures when examining the participants. Finally, the participants are given a urinalysis to further document their substance use (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009).
II. Literature Review In this study the literature review is not in its own section, but instead acts as a prelude to and a foundation for engaging in the main research of the study. The literature that the authors of this study focused on showed many of the same trends. Some of the trends that were repeated in many of the reviewed literature include, low validity for self reports in studies concerning substance use (Brown, Kranzler, & Del Boca, 1992; Dawson, 1998; Del Boca & Darkes, 2003; Harrison, 1997; Midanik, 1982), self reports increase in validity when measures are taken to ensure that there is less of a reason to be deceptive (Babor, Brown, & Del Boca, 1990; Del Boca & Noll, 2000; Zaldívar et al., 2006), and using biochemical markers such as urinalysis are not always a superior alternative to self reports (Harrison, 1997; Saunders, Aasland, Babor, De la Fuente, & Grant, 1993; Wish, Hoffman, & Nemes, 1997; Wolff et al., 1999). The conclusions of these trends in the literature show that while self reporting can be imprecise due to social desirability, there are ways that a researcher can minimize the inaccuracies. It is important for the authors to establish these criteria from the literature review in order to bring meaning to their correlations between the self reports and the direct and indirect evaluation scales in their study.
III. Methods All of the participants in this study were Caucasian college students who responded to a poster advertisement with a promise of compensation.
In a total of 506 respondents, 308 were females and 198 were male. In addition to their gender, the students’ degree programs and ages were also recorded. Based on the fact that the study is used to generalize the behaviors of the participants, a fairly large number of participants were used, data collection was structured and statistical data was retrieved, this approach is quantitative. The design is experimental. Some of the variables are only measured and not manipulated, but they do not impact the results of the experiment. The two main variables in this study are social desirability and consumption of alcohol and other drugs. These are the dependent variables. The independent variables are the age, gender, and major of the participants (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes,
2009).
The social desirability and congruence variable is measured by three different scales. The Edwards Social Desirability Scale (EDDS) is adapted from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and is answered with true and false answers. Each answer that matches the key for this test is given a point. The higher the points are at the end, the more social desirable the answers. The second scale used is the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). The purpose of this particular scale is to measure self deception. The third test is the Incongruence Scale (ICS). This scale is also adapted from the MMPI, uses true and false answers and is used to see if there is a consistency in a person’s responses (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009). Since the MMPI is considered a discipline standard test in mental health, it seems reasonable that scales adapted from it will be useful in determining whether or not social desirability is a factor for participants.
The consumption of drugs and alcohol variable is measured by several different scales, as well as self reports and urinalyses. All participant evaluations were conducted on Monday in order for the biochemical examination to capture the weekend’s substance use. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Addiction Acknowledgment Scale (AAS) were use to measure direct risk due to substance use. The CAGE Alcohol Questionnaire, Addiction Potential Scale (APS), and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC-R). Some of these also included aspects of the MMPI, as well as, true and false answers. The CAGE was also used for cannabis and cocaine by replacement of drug. The results of these eight scales, the self reports, and the urinalysis results were all entered into analysis software in order evaluate how many participants were influenced by social desirability and which could have issues with drugs and alcohol (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009). It is important to note that all the students were enrolled in a Hispanic university; therefore all of the scales were translated from English to Spanish. It is a general understanding that much can be lost in translation including true meaning and inference.
IV. Results
Three different analyses were done with the results of the evaluations. First participants were broken down by cutoff points for the various drug abuse scales. This told the researchers how at risk each participant was to drug and alcohol use/abuse. Another analysis was the correlation between the direct and indirect substance use scales. The final analysis is the correlation between the use scales and the social desirability scales that also indicate congruence. Depending on the scale, there were between 10 and 30 percent of the participants that had average to high risk substance abuse issues. As predicted, the correlation between the direct and indirect drug scales was high. The interesting result was the low correlation between drug use/abuse and social desirability (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009).
V. Discussion
There are many strengths and weaknesses for this study. The study used many different scales, was well thought out and produced useful data. Unfortunately the study was English to Spanish translated tests that give room for error and it focused on college students who have less to lose by telling the entire truth than the original example of parents in the child welfare system. It would be interesting to see if participants who had something to lose due to their drug use/abuse such as their children or freedom would score the same in social desirability and congruency. The most prominent weakness of this study was that conclusive results could not be provided in terms of which scales were more useful in successfully decreasing biases in participants.
References
Babor, T., Brown, J., & Del Boca, F. (1990). Validity of self-reports in applied research on addictive behaviors: Fact or fiction? Behavioral Assessment, 12, 5–31.
Brown, J., Kranzler, H.R., & Del Boca, F.K. (1992). Self-reports by alcohol and drug abuse inpatients: Factors affecting reliability and validity. British Journal of Addiction, 87,1013–1024.
Dawson, D.A. (1998). Measuring alcohol consumption: Limitations and prospects for improvement. Addiction, 93, 965–968.
Del Boca, F.K., & Darkes, J. (2003). The validity of self-reports of alcohol consumption: State of the science and challenges for research. Addiction, 98, 1–17
Del Boca, F., & Noll, J. (2000). Truth or consequences: The validity of self-report data in health services research. Addiction,95, 347–360.
Harrison, L. (1997). The validity of self-reported drug use in survey research: An overview and critique of research method. In L. Harrison & A. Hughes (Eds.): The validity of self reported drug use: Improving the accuracy of survey estimates (pp. 17–36). NIDA Research Monograph 167. US Department of Health and Human Services.
Midanik, L. (1982). The validity of self-reported alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. A literature review. British Journal of Addiction, 77, 357–382.
Oliveros, A., & Kaufman, J. (2011). Addressing substance abuse treatment needs of parents involved with the child welfare system. Child Welfare, 90(1), 25-41. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/918461957?accountid=32521
Saunders, J.B., Aasland, O.G., Babor, T.F., De la Fuente, J.R., & Grant, M.T.I. (1993). Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption II. Addiction, 88, 791–804.
Wish, E.D., Hoffman, J.A., & Nemes, S. (1997). The validity of self-reports of drug use at treatment admission and at followup: Comparisons with urinalysis and hair assays. In L. Harrison &A. Hughes (Eds.), The validity of self-reported drug use: Improving the accuracy of survey estimates (pp. 200–226). NIDA Research Monograph 167. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services.
Wolff, K., Farrell, M., Marsden, J., Montiero, M.G., Ali, R., Welch, S. et al. (1999). A review of biological indicators of illicit drug use, practical considerations, and clinical usefulness. Addiction, 94, 1279–1298.
Zaldívar, F. F., Molina, A. M., López Ríos, F. F., & García Montes, J. M. (2009). Evaluation of alcohol and other drug use and the influence of social desirability: Direct and camouflaged measures. European Journal Of Psychological Assessment, 25(4), 244-251. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.25.4.244
Zaldívar, F., Flores, P., Sánchez, F., García Montes, J.M., López Rios, F., Molina, A. et al. (2006). Improving the sensibility of self-reported data in the consumption of drug by young people: A gender perspective. Agreement between the Andalusian Government Council for Equality and Welfare and the University of Almeria. Unpublished manuscript, Social-Universidad de Almería.
Rae Sherk
Ashford University
PSY 326
Dr. Gary Boyles
July 1, 2013
Social Desirability Construct of Substance Abuse Reporting
I. Introduction
Drug addiction is a disease with serious consequences. The causes of drug addiction can be complex. Risk factors include family disposition, neighborhood, and social acquaintances. The intended results are the ultimate high, euphoria, and numbness drugs can provide. It is widely known, however, that these results are only temporary solutions to real world problems. The long term psychological impacts of the stress and strain that drug abuse causes on the brain can be debilitating. However, the physical effects are not the only repercussion of drug addiction. While there are people that have the ability to use prescription and recreational drugs no harmful effects, some individuals can become addicted to a certain drug after using it just one time and the social effects can be just as …show more content…
harmful as the physical ones because it can cause severe depression, isolation, and irreparable damage to familial relationships.
Drug addiction is a common problem that almost everyone can say they have encountered in their lives in one way or another. Everyone knows someone, has a family member, or has experienced themselves the black hole that is drug addiction. Working in the child welfare field it is easy to see that drug addiction is a prevalent extenuating factor of child abuse and neglect. It is not uncommon to see mothers and fathers chose drugs over their children. The psychical addiction is so immense that they cannot meet the expectations of appropriate social norms in parenting.
When substance abuse becomes a debilitating factor in someone’s life, they may seek out treatment either on their own or because they are court ordered. Prior to treatment a drug and alcohol evaluation must be completed to determine treatment options. Unless accompanied by past law enforcement records or urinalysis results, these evaluations rely solely on the self reports of the client. According to Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, and García Montes, “Although evaluation with self-reports has been, and still is, the most widespread practice for the evaluation of alcohol and other drug use, it has also received severe criticism because of its low validity” (page 1, 2009). Since drug treatment is often the primary service that needs to be completed in order for parents to regain custody of their children, it is extremely important for them to be completely honest when being evaluated. This is difficult given the shame and stigma that comes along with losing your children to the system. According to Oliveras and Kaufman, in one particular study it is, “… estimated that of parents required to receive substance abuse treatment as part of their service plan, 64% complete an intake for services, 50% attend some treatment, and only 13% complete treatment” (Page 26, 2011). This is staggering considering the reunification rates of children with parents who do not satisfy their service plan is very low. Taking these numbers into consideration, it is vital to take into account the social desirability construct when discussing the self reports of parents in substance abuse related cases.
This purpose of this paper is to critique a research study that evaluates the influence that social desirability has on self reports of drug use and abuse, Evaluation of Alcohol and
Other Drug Use and the Influence of Social Desirability. The study uses five different drug use evaluation scales, a self report are measured by two social desirability constructs, the Edwards Social Desirability Scale (DS) and the Paulhus Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). The study also explores the difference in direct and indirect measures when examining the participants. Finally, the participants are given a urinalysis to further document their substance use (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009).
II. Literature Review In this study the literature review is not in its own section, but instead acts as a prelude to and a foundation for engaging in the main research of the study. The literature that the authors of this study focused on showed many of the same trends. Some of the trends that were repeated in many of the reviewed literature include, low validity for self reports in studies concerning substance use (Brown, Kranzler, & Del Boca, 1992; Dawson, 1998; Del Boca & Darkes, 2003; Harrison, 1997; Midanik, 1982), self reports increase in validity when measures are taken to ensure that there is less of a reason to be deceptive (Babor, Brown, & Del Boca, 1990; Del Boca & Noll, 2000; Zaldívar et al., 2006), and using biochemical markers such as urinalysis are not always a superior alternative to self reports (Harrison, 1997; Saunders, Aasland, Babor, De la Fuente, & Grant, 1993; Wish, Hoffman, & Nemes, 1997; Wolff et al., 1999). The conclusions of these trends in the literature show that while self reporting can be imprecise due to social desirability, there are ways that a researcher can minimize the inaccuracies. It is important for the authors to establish these criteria from the literature review in order to bring meaning to their correlations between the self reports and the direct and indirect evaluation scales in their study.
III. Methods All of the participants in this study were Caucasian college students who responded to a poster advertisement with a promise of compensation.
In a total of 506 respondents, 308 were females and 198 were male. In addition to their gender, the students’ degree programs and ages were also recorded. Based on the fact that the study is used to generalize the behaviors of the participants, a fairly large number of participants were used, data collection was structured and statistical data was retrieved, this approach is quantitative. The design is experimental. Some of the variables are only measured and not manipulated, but they do not impact the results of the experiment. The two main variables in this study are social desirability and consumption of alcohol and other drugs. These are the dependent variables. The independent variables are the age, gender, and major of the participants (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes,
2009).
The social desirability and congruence variable is measured by three different scales. The Edwards Social Desirability Scale (EDDS) is adapted from the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and is answered with true and false answers. Each answer that matches the key for this test is given a point. The higher the points are at the end, the more social desirable the answers. The second scale used is the Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR). The purpose of this particular scale is to measure self deception. The third test is the Incongruence Scale (ICS). This scale is also adapted from the MMPI, uses true and false answers and is used to see if there is a consistency in a person’s responses (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009). Since the MMPI is considered a discipline standard test in mental health, it seems reasonable that scales adapted from it will be useful in determining whether or not social desirability is a factor for participants.
The consumption of drugs and alcohol variable is measured by several different scales, as well as self reports and urinalyses. All participant evaluations were conducted on Monday in order for the biochemical examination to capture the weekend’s substance use. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and Addiction Acknowledgment Scale (AAS) were use to measure direct risk due to substance use. The CAGE Alcohol Questionnaire, Addiction Potential Scale (APS), and the MacAndrew Alcoholism Scale (MAC-R). Some of these also included aspects of the MMPI, as well as, true and false answers. The CAGE was also used for cannabis and cocaine by replacement of drug. The results of these eight scales, the self reports, and the urinalysis results were all entered into analysis software in order evaluate how many participants were influenced by social desirability and which could have issues with drugs and alcohol (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009). It is important to note that all the students were enrolled in a Hispanic university; therefore all of the scales were translated from English to Spanish. It is a general understanding that much can be lost in translation including true meaning and inference.
IV. Results
Three different analyses were done with the results of the evaluations. First participants were broken down by cutoff points for the various drug abuse scales. This told the researchers how at risk each participant was to drug and alcohol use/abuse. Another analysis was the correlation between the direct and indirect substance use scales. The final analysis is the correlation between the use scales and the social desirability scales that also indicate congruence. Depending on the scale, there were between 10 and 30 percent of the participants that had average to high risk substance abuse issues. As predicted, the correlation between the direct and indirect drug scales was high. The interesting result was the low correlation between drug use/abuse and social desirability (Zaldívar, Molina, López Ríos, & García Montes, 2009).
V. Discussion
There are many strengths and weaknesses for this study. The study used many different scales, was well thought out and produced useful data. Unfortunately the study was English to Spanish translated tests that give room for error and it focused on college students who have less to lose by telling the entire truth than the original example of parents in the child welfare system. It would be interesting to see if participants who had something to lose due to their drug use/abuse such as their children or freedom would score the same in social desirability and congruency. The most prominent weakness of this study was that conclusive results could not be provided in terms of which scales were more useful in successfully decreasing biases in participants.
References
Babor, T., Brown, J., & Del Boca, F. (1990). Validity of self-reports in applied research on addictive behaviors: Fact or fiction? Behavioral Assessment, 12, 5–31.
Brown, J., Kranzler, H.R., & Del Boca, F.K. (1992). Self-reports by alcohol and drug abuse inpatients: Factors affecting reliability and validity. British Journal of Addiction, 87,1013–1024.
Dawson, D.A. (1998). Measuring alcohol consumption: Limitations and prospects for improvement. Addiction, 93, 965–968.
Del Boca, F.K., & Darkes, J. (2003). The validity of self-reports of alcohol consumption: State of the science and challenges for research. Addiction, 98, 1–17
Del Boca, F., & Noll, J. (2000). Truth or consequences: The validity of self-report data in health services research. Addiction,95, 347–360.
Harrison, L. (1997). The validity of self-reported drug use in survey research: An overview and critique of research method. In L. Harrison & A. Hughes (Eds.): The validity of self reported drug use: Improving the accuracy of survey estimates (pp. 17–36). NIDA Research Monograph 167. US Department of Health and Human Services.
Midanik, L. (1982). The validity of self-reported alcohol consumption and alcohol problems. A literature review. British Journal of Addiction, 77, 357–382.
Oliveros, A., & Kaufman, J. (2011). Addressing substance abuse treatment needs of parents involved with the child welfare system. Child Welfare, 90(1), 25-41. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/918461957?accountid=32521
Saunders, J.B., Aasland, O.G., Babor, T.F., De la Fuente, J.R., & Grant, M.T.I. (1993). Development of the alcohol use disorders identification test (AUDIT): WHO collaborative project on early detection of persons with harmful alcohol consumption II. Addiction, 88, 791–804.
Wish, E.D., Hoffman, J.A., & Nemes, S. (1997). The validity of self-reports of drug use at treatment admission and at followup: Comparisons with urinalysis and hair assays. In L. Harrison &A. Hughes (Eds.), The validity of self-reported drug use: Improving the accuracy of survey estimates (pp. 200–226). NIDA Research Monograph 167. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services.
Wolff, K., Farrell, M., Marsden, J., Montiero, M.G., Ali, R., Welch, S. et al. (1999). A review of biological indicators of illicit drug use, practical considerations, and clinical usefulness. Addiction, 94, 1279–1298.
Zaldívar, F. F., Molina, A. M., López Ríos, F. F., & García Montes, J. M. (2009). Evaluation of alcohol and other drug use and the influence of social desirability: Direct and camouflaged measures. European Journal Of Psychological Assessment, 25(4), 244-251. doi:10.1027/1015-5759.25.4.244
Zaldívar, F., Flores, P., Sánchez, F., García Montes, J.M., López Rios, F., Molina, A. et al. (2006). Improving the sensibility of self-reported data in the consumption of drug by young people: A gender perspective. Agreement between the Andalusian Government Council for Equality and Welfare and the University of Almeria. Unpublished manuscript, Social-Universidad de Almería.