Readiness to Change Among a Group of Heavy-Drinking College Students: Correlates of Readiness and a Comparison of Measures

OBJECTIVE: Although several multi-item scales assess readiness to change alcohol consumption, some researchers have proposed that a small number of single-item rulers may assess readiness nearly as well. PARTICIPANTS: In fall 2006 and spring 2007, the authors assessed 279 participants who reported at least 1 heavy drinking episode in the 2 weeks prior to the survey. METHODS: The authors compared answers from the Readiness to Change Questionnaire with rulers measuring importance and confidence regarding change. RESULTS: Importance correlated strongly with readiness to change, whereas confidence correlated negatively and less strongly with readiness. The validity of the importance ruler as a proxy for readiness was supported by its correlations with several measures of patterns of alcohol use, as well as its precursors and consequences. CONCLUSIONS: Given the strong correlation between the importance ruler and the Readiness to Change score, this method may have practical utility as a brief assessment tool. Adding confidence as a second dimension slightly improved the ability to predict readiness.