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

<p><strong>Background:</strong> The dispositional tendency to experience guilt is inversely related to disordered alcohol use, while dispositional shame-proneness appears to share a positive relationship with alcohol problems. </p> <p><strong>Objective: </strong>In order to further research in this domain, a new measure of alcohol userelated shame and guilt is described. </p> <p><strong>Methods: </strong>Using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), the psychometric properties of the Perceptions of Drinking Scale (PODS) were validated across two independent samples (Sample 1 <i>N</i> ¼ 293, Sample 2 <i>N </i>¼ 429). </p> <p><strong>Results: </strong>A four factor model of the PODS was identified in exploratory factor analysis. The hypothesized four-factor PODS 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 clearly related 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 associated with the taking of action to address problematic alcohol use. </p> <p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The Perceptions of Drinking Scale has good psychometric properties and also appears to reliably distinguish between experiences of alcohol use-related shame and guilt. Both alcohol use-related shame and guilt appear to be positively associated with the contemplation of changing one’s alcohol use-related behaviors. Only alcohol use-related guilt was clearly linked to the taking of action to address problematic drinking behavior.</p>