Assessing alcohol abstinence self-efficacy in undergraduate students: psychometric evaluation of the alcohol abstinence self-efficacy scale

BACKGROUND: Alcohol use is a major public health concern with respect to its impact on youth morbidity and mortality. Self-efficacy to abstain from alcohol use in young people is an important prevention and intervention strategy in future alcohol dependence. However, research on the assessment of self-efficacy to abstain from alcohol use among undergraduate students is almost non-existent in Ghana, apparently due to the unavailability of a standardised testing instrument. The purpose of this study was to examine the factor validity, structure, and reliability of the 20-item Alcohol Abstinence Self-efficacy Scale (AASES) in undergraduate students in Ghana. FINDINGS: Two hundred and fifteen undergraduate students studying in a private university with a mean age of 23.5 years participated in the study by completing the AASES. Results of a confirmatory factor analysis showed that the data did not fit the initial four-factor AASES model. Subsequent exploratory factor analysis showed that the AASES is a unidimensional construct (in the total sample and a subsample of drinkers), contrary to findings found in western cultures. The AASES also had a high Cronbach’s alpha. Although the AASES was unidimensional in this study, each of the original four-factor model also had high and acceptable Cronbach’s alpha. CONCLUSION: The original AASES structure was not confirmed in this study but a unidimensional factor was found suggesting that the AASES could be used as an instrument for assessing alcohol abstinence self-efficacy in undergraduate students in Ghana, although further validation research is needed in larger as well as in different samples.