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
- Citation: Luoma, J.B.,Nobles, R. H., Drake, C., E., Hayes, S. C., O-Hair, A., Fletcher, L., & Kohlenberg, B. S. (2013). Self-Stigma in Substance Abuse: Development of a New Measure. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 34, 1-12. Download article here.
- Download Substance Abuse Self-Stigma measure and scoring instructions.
Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Substance Abuse
- Citation: Luoma, J. B.,Drake, C., Hayes, S. C., Kohlenberg, B. (2011). Substance Abuse and Psychological Flexibility: The Development of a New Measure. Addiction Research and Theory, 19(1), 3-13. Download article here.
- Download the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire for Substance Abuse (AAQ-SA) and scoring instructions.
- For versions translated to other languages, go here.
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:
- We created or adapted some of the scales that were used in Luoma, J.B., Kohlenberg, B. S., Hayes, S. C., Bunting, K., & Rye, A.K., (2008). Reducing the Self Stigma of Substance Abuse through Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Model, Manual Development, and Pilot Outcomes. Addiction Research and Theory, 16(2), 149-165. These measures have not been psychometrically studied as far as I am aware, but here they are with that caveat.
- Download the Internalized Stigma of Substance Abuse Scale (ISSA)
- Download the Stigmatizing Attitudes Believability Scale (client version)
- Download Wahl’s self-stigma questionnaire
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.