These scales are free to use for either research or practice purposes.

You don’t need to contact me to use them for research or in your clinical practice. Please feel free to use them for clinical or research purposes or adapt them into other languages without contacting me.

Substance Abuse Self-Stigma Scale

Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Substance Abuse

Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale

  • Citation: Luoma, J. B.,O’Hair, A. K., Kohlenberg, B. S., Hayes, S. C., Fletcher, L. (2010). The development and psychometric properties of a new measure of perceived stigma toward substance users. Substance Use and Misuse, 45, 47-57. Download article here.
  • Download the Perceived Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale and scoring instructions.
  • For researchers interested in this measure, please note that this is a measure of perceived stigma. This isn’t a measure the person’s personal attitudes toward substance users, but a measure of how frequent they think stigma is in society. It’s a measure of perceived public stigma, in other words. You could also call it a measure of stigma awareness. Thus, if you are designing an intervention to reduce stigma in a group, for example health care providers, you wouldn’t expect this measure to go down. It might even go up if people become more aware of the types of stigma targeting substance users. Instead, you need to find a measure of personal stigma toward substance users.

ACT Knowledge Questionnaire

The ACT Knowledge Questionnaire (download here) is a 16 item measure of conceptual knowledge of ACT for use in studies and evaluation of the training of therapists who are learning ACT.  It was original created for use in the following study:

Luoma, J. B. & Plumb, J. (2013). Improving Therapist Psychological Flexibility While Training Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Pilot Study. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy 42(1), 1-8. DOI:10.1080/16506073.2012.701662

It has since been used in other studies and has been revised to a shorter version that is available for use. More info on the original can be found here and info on the revised version at the links below:

Other scales:

Other Measures of Substance Use Stigma

Here are some articles that list other measures of substance use stigma you may want to consider:

  • Fox, A. B., Earnshaw, V. A., Taverna, E. C., & Vogt, D. (2018). Conceptualizing and measuring mental illness stigma: The Mental Illness Stigma Framework and critical review of measures. Stigma and Health, 3, 348–376. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/sah0000104
  • Smith, L. R., Earnshaw, V. A., Copenhaver, M. M., & Cunningham, C. O. (2016). Substance use stigma: Reliability and validity of a theory-based scale for substance-using populations. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 162, 34–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.02.019
  • Smith, L. R., Mittal, M. L., Wagner, K., Copenhaver, M. M., Cunningham, C. O., & Earnshaw, V. A. (2020). Factor structure, internal reliability and construct validity of the Methadone Maintenance Treatment Stigma Mechanisms Mechanisms Scale (MMT-SMS). Addiction, 115, 354–367. http://dx.doi .org/10.1111/add.14799

Self-Stigma Treatment Manual and Fidelity Coding System

Anyone looking for the treatment manual that I helped create for shame and self-stigma related to substance use can find it here. Any ACBS member can download it free of charge and use it in your research.

The fidelity coding  manual is also found at that website.