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Article
The Development, Reliability, and Validity of a Clinical Rating Scale for Codependency
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
  • Daniel Harkness, Boise State University
  • Melaney Swenson, Idaho Youth Ranch Family Services
  • Kathryn Madsen-Hampton, Tulare County Health and Human Services
  • Richard Hale, I Think I Can Learning Center
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-1-2001
DOI
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2001.10400481
Abstract

This investigation examined the reliability and validity if a rating scale for codependency in substance abuse treatment. The investigators developed an example-anchored rating scale to operationalize codependency as substance abuse counselors construe it in practice, and recruited 27 counselors for a counterbalanced multiple-treatment experiment. Counselors were randomly assigned to one of four continuing education workshops for rating-scale training, and asked to evaluate codependency in five videotaped cases. Semistructured case interviews were videotaped with a male and a female from five adult populations to vary the gender and codependency of cases: (1) outpatients in treatment for addiction, (2) outpatient spouses, (3) members of Codependents Anonymous, (4) United State Bureau of Land Management smoke jumpers, and (5) college students majoring in business or economics. To control for gender effects, one workshop presented male cases, one workshop presented female cases, and two workshops presented cases of both genders. To control for order of effect, the assignment of videotapes to workshops was randomized to counterbalance the order in which counselors viewed them. The findings suggest that the rating scale yields reliable and valid evaluations of codependency without appreciable gender bias.

Citation Information
Daniel Harkness, Melaney Swenson, Kathryn Madsen-Hampton and Richard Hale. "The Development, Reliability, and Validity of a Clinical Rating Scale for Codependency" Journal of Psychoactive Drugs (2001)
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/daniel_harkness/6/