Page 141 - PhD GT

The Coping Behaviours Inventory (CBI) (Litman et al. 1983) (see Appendix 9) was selected as the most suitable questionnaire for use in this study for the following reasons: i) it was validated for use in clinical samples of problem drinkers in the UK; ii) the items included in it most closely resembled the items generated in interviews with help seekers for both alcohol and heroin at the Leeds Addiction Unit and it therefore appeared to be the scale most suitable for adaptation to heroin users..
Adaptation of the CBI and validation of the adapted scale, the CBIdrg, was conducted as part of Study 3 (adaptation and validation) described in Chapter 4. Three samples, also described in Chapter 4 were used: Sample 2 was used for generating statements about coping, comparing and collapsing these with items in the original CBI with changed wording suitable for heroin users only where this was strictly necessary. Sample 4 was the sample used for the validation of the CBIdrg (as well as for the validation of ICSdrg reported in Chapter 5), and Sample 5 was the sample used for test retest reliability of the CBIdrg, again together with such test of the ICSdrg.
6.5.1 Method
In order to test the relevance and potential adaptability of the Coping Behaviours Inventory (Litman et al. 1983), I interviewed 45 individuals abstinent from their primary drug of dependence, described in Chapter 4 as Sample 2, about the coping strategies they used when trying to avoid using the drug.
For the purposes of this study, the cognitive / behavioural distinction most commonly used in other studies was retained in the adapted inventory. Respondents were asked by the interviewer "Tell me all the things you do and think to avoid using ......(name of substance)". They were prompted with the question "Is there anything else?" The list of strategies generated from responses recorded in the interviews is found at Appendix 10. Responses were coded as ‘Cognitive’ or ‘Behavioural’ coping strategies. The statements generated in these interviews were checked against the Litman et al. (1984) items and duplication eliminated. They were then piloted with a further sample of clinic attenders and reduced to 38 items (see Appendix 11). Only two of these items were not covered in any way by the existing items in the original CBI (see Appendix 9) and these two items were retained for the purpose of validating the adapted scale.
The adapted scale was then constructed in the same way as the original CBI: respondents are asked to tick a four point frequency scale from (0) ‘Never’ to (3) ‘Usually’, in response to the question: how often have you used these ways to stop yourself using drugs again? The 38 item scale contained 18 behavioural items and 20 cognitive items (see Appendix 11) although in subsequent
135