Measuring alcohol use-related shame and guilt: Development and validation of the Perceptions of Drinking Scale

Background: The dispositional tendency to experience guilt is inversely related to disordered alcohol use, while dispositional shame-proneness appears to share a positive relationship with alcoholproblems. Objective: In order to further research in this domain, a new measure of alcohol userelated shame and guilt is described. Methods: Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis(CFA), the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Drinking Scale (PODS) were validatedacross two independent samples (Sample 1 N ¼ 293, Sample 2 N ¼ 429). Results: A four factormodel of the PODS was identified in exploratory factor analysis. The hypothesized four-factorPODS model was validated in an independent sample using CFA (RMSEA ¼ .046; CFI ¼ .99;TLI¼ .99). Alcohol use-related shame and guilt were reliably differentiated, and test re-test stability,divergent and convergent validity was established. Alcohol use-related shame was not clearlyrelated to taking action to address problematic alcohol use, but was positively related with measures of negative affect and using avoidance-based coping strategies. Conversely, alcohol userelated guilt was generally unrelated to measures of negative affect and was clearly associatedwith the taking of action to address problematic alcohol use. Conclusions: The Perceptions ofDrinking Scale has good psychometric properties and also appears to reliably distinguish betweenexperiences of alcohol use-related shame and guilt. Both alcohol use-related shame and guiltappear to be positively associated with the contemplation of changing one’s alcohol use-relatedbehaviors. Only alcohol use-related guilt was clearly linked to the taking of action to address problematic drinking behavior