The Development of a Measure of Motivation to Change in Adolescent Substance Users: Preliminary Findings

Assessing motivation to change in adolescent substance abusers is necessary in order to match treatment interventions to stage of change. This article describes the initial development and validation of an adolescent-specific multi-dimensional scale to measure motivation to change related to substance use. Preliminary psychometric findings reveal adequate internal consistency and a factor structure corresponding to the inventory's subscales. Higher order factor analysis demonstrated the presence of a higher order factor (motivation to change) on which six of seven factors loaded. Cluster analysis revealed the presence of three groups, characterized as experimenters, precontemplators, and contemplators. Implications for future research and for practice are discussed.