The Crack Use Relapse Scale (CURS): development and psychometric validation

• Main Authors: Rosemeri Pedroso, Márcia Pettenon, Luciano Guimarães, Félix Henrique Kessler, Flavio Pechansky
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Associação Brasileira de Psiquiatria (ABP) 2013-09-01
• Series: Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry
• Subjects: Relapse; crack users; scale; validation
• Online Access: http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-44462013000300271&lng=en&tlng=en

Objective: To report the development and validation of the Crack Use Relapse Scale (CURS) in an inpatient population. Methods: A pilot study with 30 male crack users was conducted to generate 35 sentences related to the construct of interest. A five-point Likert scale including 25 items and, initially, nine theoretical factors was generated and utilized in a cross-sectional study with a sample of 333 hospitalized male crack users. Results: Overall Cronbach's alpha was α = 0.86. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with oblimin rotation kept the 25 items (factor loadings > 0.40) and six definitive factors, which explained 62.1% of the total variance. Conclusions: The six-factor model yielded by the EFA of the CURS reflects the various dimensions of the construct, assigning satisfactory values and demonstrating good psychometric properties, including validity and reliability.