The European Adolescent Assessment Dialogue (EuroADAD): a psychometric evaluation.

Background: The Adolescent Drug Abuse Diagnosis (ADAD) has been a gold standard for assessing drug use and associated problems in adolescents. Criticism of the instrument has been increasing. A new instrument, the European Adolescent Assessment Dialogue (EuroADAD) that builds on ADAD's strengths but seeks to address its limitations is now available, but has not been subjected to comprehensive psychometric evaluation.

Objective: To examine the psychometric properties of the EuroADAD across various settings in adolescent populations who developed or were at a high risk of developing substance use and psychosocial adaptation problems.

Participants And Settings: Three of the samples were collected in Hungary, including: institutionalized youths from juvenile residential facility (n = 295); adolescents from outpatient psychiatry facility (n = 278), and controls (n = 59). An additional sample was collected in the Netherlands, and consisted of adolescent boys from an independent residential institution for youth with severe behavioral problems (n = 51).

Procedure: The EuroADAD was administered by trained interviewers. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews and self-report questionnaires.

Results: Reliability: the intraclass correlation was high for all domains of the EuroADAD; reliability analyses indicated good test-retest reliability, and internal consistency.

Validity: difference among study samples was significant (p < 0.05) for the majority of the domains, with juvenile institution and psychiatric outpatient subjects exhibiting higher severity in most areas compared to controls. The Hungarian and Dutch samples were comparable, expect for the legal domain, due to the higher severity of behavioral problems in the Dutch sample. Several domains of the instrument, including 'alcohol', 'drugs' and 'legal' showed an association with trait aggression as measured by the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire and with Novelty Seeking on the Cloninger Temperament and Character Inventory.

Conclusion: Based on the pattern and significance of group differences, and correlations with other measures, the scale has good criterion, and convergent and discriminant construct validity. The EuroADAD is a reliable and valid tool for the assessment of alcohol and drug use, and related psychosocial problems in adolescents.