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combined items enquiring about objective circumstances with items enquiring about the degree of satisfaction experienced with reference to these. The domains covered are: housing, occupation, finances, social activities and relationships, relatives, marital status problems and satisfaction, children, other domestic relationships, legal matters and questions for those living alone. The scale was piloted and tested in primary care samples (including the responses of relatives), in psychiatric and epilepsy out-patients and in a social work caseload and found to be a valid and reliable measure readily acceptable for use either by postal or face to face contact.
The SSQ was adapted from the SPQ for the purpose of routine assessment and outcome measurement for patients attending the addiction services in Leeds and in Newcastle-upon-Tyne (Raistrick et al. in preparation). In order to comply with the requirement of a ten minute assessment package (Raistrick et al. 1994), items enquiring about objective circumstances were removed and those enquiring about satisfaction were retained. The resulting eight items address the domains of relationships, living arrangements and accommodation, social activity, employment and finances. Four response choices list degrees of satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Scores range from 0 - 3, the higher the score the greater the dissatisfaction. (Subsequently the scoring system was reversed so that they better reflected the meaning given in the title of the questionnaire).
The scale was administered to a sample of 1681 patients attending for first out-patient appointment for treatment of their substance misuse and dependence at two addiction agencies, the Leeds Addiction Unit and the Regional Drug and Alcohol Service in Newcastle upon Tyne. Respondents at the two sites differed in the proportions of people attending for problems with alcohol compared to other drugs, with the Leeds centre having more similar proportions of each (47% and 53% respectively) than the Newcastle centre (60% and 40% respectively). Small but statistically significant differences were found in the mean age, mean dependence and GHQ scores between the two centres but no differences in gender proportions were found.
When the respondents at the two sites were combined into one sample and compared by main substance, significant differences emerged in the psychopathology score (as measured by the GHQ), the mean dependence score and age; problem drinkers were older (39.7 compared with 27.1 years), had lower mean dependence scores (18.4, s.d. 7.9 compared with 21.5 s.d 6.9) and lower mean psychopathology scores (22.4, s.d. 8.8 compared with 23.9 s.d. 8.1) than those presenting with problems with other drugs.
In order to examine homogeneity of items and internal consistency of the scale, responses to the items were subjected to item analysis. Each of the eight items showed a statistically significant correlation with total SSQ score with that item deleted. (Spearman’s rho ranged from .57 to .66 and
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