Validity and Reliability of the German Version of the Short Understanding of Substance Abuse Scale

Abstract

This paper presents the German version of the Short Understanding of Substance Abuse Scale (SUSS) [Humphreys et al.: Psychol Addict Behav 1996;10:38–44], the Verständnis von Störungen durch Substanzkonsum (VSS), and evaluates its psychometric properties. The VSS assesses clinicians’ beliefs about the nature and treatment of substance use disorders, particularly their endorsement of psychosocial and disease orientation. The VSS was administered to 160 treatment staff members at 12 substance use disorder treatment programs in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Because the confirmatory factor analysis of the VSS did not completely replicate the factorial structure of the SUSS, an exploratory factor analysis was undertaken. This analysis identified two factors: the Psychosocial model factor and a slightly different Disease model factor. The VSS Disease and Psychosocial subscales showed convergent and discriminant validity, as well as sufficient reliability.

Assessing understandings of substance use disorders among Norwegian treatment professionals, patients and the general public

“…The English SUSS version was translated to Norwegian with a standard procedure (two forward and two backward translations), in collaboration with the questionnaire’s lead developer (the third author of the present paper) [ 24 ]. The SUSS consists of seven statements for the disease model beliefs and five statements for the psychosocial model beliefs subscales (Table 1 ), which were found to cluster together in the only European psychometric study of the instrument [ 15 ]. We did not use the eclectic model subscale in this study, as recommended [ 2 , 15 ].…”

“…The SUSS consists of seven statements for the disease model beliefs and five statements for the psychosocial model beliefs subscales (Table 1 ), which were found to cluster together in the only European psychometric study of the instrument [ 15 ]. We did not use the eclectic model subscale in this study, as recommended [ 2 , 15 ]. Respondents rated the statements on a 5-point Likert scale ranging from the strongest disagreement (score 0) to the strongest agreement (score 4) [ 8 ].…”

“…The meaning of the third scale, the eclectic model is less clear, but items loading on this factor reject the idea that addiction is a homogeneous entity with a single etiology [ 2 ]. Research in both the U.S. and Switzerland showed that this subscale had mediocre psychometric properties, leading to the recommendation to use only the first two scales [ 2 , 15 ].…”

“…Before applying a scale developed in one culture to another (or indeed in a different subculture within the same society), one ought to check whether the questionnaire measures the constructs in the same way in the respective cultures. The SUSS was developed in the U.S., and had a similar but somewhat different factor structure in a Swiss German sample; one disease model item was replaced with an eclectic model item as a result of their exploratory factor analysis [ 15 ]. Thus, one needs to affirm that the measurement and the structure of the underlying constructs are invariant (equivalent) across the studied samples [ 18 , 19 ].…”

Patients with Substance Use and Personality Disorders: A Comparison of Patient Characteristics, Treatment Process, and Outcomes in Swiss and U.S. Substance Use Disorder Programs

“…Step/Alcoholic Anonymous (AA) treatment orientation (alphas = .81 and .94 for Swiss and U.S. samples, respectively) focuses on goals and activities such as helping patients accept that they are powerless over abused substances and working through the 12steps; and b) cognitive-behavioral treatment orientation (alphas = .83 and .91 for Swiss and U.S. samples, respectively) focuses on developing confidence in coping with high-risk situations for relapse and helping patients identify alternative responses to using substances (20,21).…”