Developing and Testing the CHORDS: Characteristics of Responsible Drinking Survey

PURPOSE: Report on the development and psychometric testing of a theoretically and evidence-grounded instrument, the Characteristics of Responsible Drinking Survey (CHORDS). DESIGN: Instrument subjected to four phases of pretesting (cognitive validity, cognitive and motivational qualities, pilot test, and item evaluation) and a final posttest implementation. SETTING: Large public university in Texas. SUBJECTS: Randomly selected convenience sample (n = 729) of currently enrolled students. MEASURES: This 78-item questionnaire measures individuals' responsible drinking beliefs, motivations, intentions, and behaviors. Cronbach α, split-half reliability, principal components analysis and Spearman ρ were conducted to investigate reliability, stability, and validity. RESULTS: Measures in the CHORDS exhibited high internal consistency reliability and strong correlations of split-half reliability. Factor analyses indicated five distinct scales were present, as proposed in the theoretical model. Subscale composite scores also exhibited a correlation to alcohol consumption behaviors, indicating concurrent validity. CONCLUSIONS: The CHORDS represents the first instrument specifically designed to assess responsible drinking beliefs and behaviors. It was found to elicit valid and reliable data among a college student sample. This instrument holds much promise for practitioners who desire to empirically investigate dimensions of responsible drinking.