NCJ Number
216701
Journal
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse Volume: 16 Issue: 1 Dated: 2006 Pages: 91-108
Date Published
2006
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This study examined gender differences in the psychometric properties of the Personal Experience Inventory (PEI), a multi-scale, self-administered questionnaire for adolescent drug abusers.
Abstract
Findings suggest that the PEI may be limited in its use across genders. The results regarding the reliability, validity, and factor structure of the PEI were similar for both girls and boys. One exception was noted for the Uncontrolled scale, which measured impulsivity and oppositional traits. Boys were more likely to express oppositional defiant behavior on this scale while girls were more likely to express low self-image. Boys were also more likely than girls to have elevations on nearly all the PEI response distortion scales, suggesting that boys might provide more invalid self-report data than girls. The PEI may be improved for use by both genders by addressing some of its gender-specific content. Data for the analysis were drawn from the PEI responses of 2,144 White participants who were recruited from 8 different adolescent drug abuse assessment and treatment programs throughout Minnesota and Canada during the period 1994 through 2002. The analysis focused on comparing the internal consistency, temporal stability, convergent validity, discriminant validity, factor structure, and response distortion of the PEI data provided by the girls versus the PEI data provided by the boys. Future research should focus on the extent of response distortion tendencies in both boys and girls. Tables, references