Deriving a Measure of Social Recovery Capital From the Important People and Activities Instrument: Construction and Psychometric Properties

Alcohol Alcohol. 2022 May 10;57(3):322-329. doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agac014.

Abstract

Aim: This study presents a measure of Social Recovery Capital (SRC) derived from the Important People and Activities instrument (IPA).

Methods: The sample comprised young adults who participated in the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism, a high-risk family study of alcohol use disorder (N = 2472). Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis identified influential items and factor structure, adjusting for family relatedness. The final scale was tested for reliability and validity.

Results: Factor analysis retained 10 items loading on three factors (Network Abstinence Behaviors, Basic Network Structure and Network Importance) that together explained 42% of the variance in SRC. The total model showed adequate fit (Comparative Fit Index = 0.95; Tucker Lewis Index = 0.93; Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.06; Standardized Root Mean Squared Residual = 0.05) and acceptable reliability (α = 0.60; McDonald's ω = 0.73) and correlated with validation measures mostly in the weak to moderate range. Due to variable factor scores for reliability and validity, we only recommend using the total score.

Conclusion: The SRC-IPA is a novel measure of SRC derived from the IPA that captures social network data and has applications in research and clinical work. Secondary data analyses using the SRC-IPA in studies that collected the IPA can further demonstrate the interaction of SRC with a wide variety of clinical indicators and demographic characteristics, making it a valuable addition to other measures of SRC.

MeSH terms

  • Factor Analysis, Statistical
  • Humans
  • Psychometrics*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Surveys and Questionnaires
  • Young Adult