Developing and Testing the CHORDS: Characteristics of Responsible Drinking Survey

Abstract

Purpose. Report on the development and psychometric testing of a theoretically and evidence-grounded instrument, the Characteristics of Responsible Drinking Survey (CHORDS). Design. Instrument subjected to four phases of pretesting (cognitive validity, cognitive and motivational qualities, pilot test, and item evaluation) and a final posttest implementation. Setting. Large public university in Texas. Subjects. Randomly selected convenience sample (n = 729) of currently enrolled students. Measures. This 78-item questionnaire measures individuals' responsible drinking beliefs, motivations, intentions, and behaviors. Cronbach α, split-half reliability, principal components analysis and Spearman ρ were conducted to investigate reliability, stability, and validity. Results. Measures in the CHORDS exhibited high internal consistency reliability and strong correlations of split-half reliability. Factor analyses indicated five distinct scales were present, as proposed in the theoretical model. Subscale composite scores also exhibited a correlation to alcohol consumption behaviors, indicating concurrent validity. Conclusions. The CHORDS represents the first instrument specifically designed to assess responsible drinking beliefs and behaviors. It was found to elicit valid and reliable data among a college student sample. This instrument holds much promise for practitioners who desire to empirically investigate dimensions of responsible drinking.