The development and initial evaluation of the Pornography-Use Avoidance Self-Efficacy Scale

Background and aims This study employed a newly developed questionnaire to evaluate whether men’s self-efficacy to avoid using pornography in each of 18 emotional, social, or sexually arousing situations was associated with either their typical frequency of pornography use or their hypersexuality. Methods Using an Internet-based data collection procedure, 229 male pornography users (Mage = 33.3 years, SD = 12.2) who had sought or considered seeking professional help for their use of pornography completed questionnaires assessing their situationally specific self-efficacy, history of pornography use, self-efficacy to employ specific pornography-reduction strategies, hypersexuality, and demographic characteristics. Results Frequency of pornography use was significantly negatively associated with level of confidence in 12 of the 18 situations. In addition, lower hypersexuality and higher confidence to employ pornography-use-reduction strategies were associated with higher confidence to avoid using pornography in each of the 18 situations. A principal axis factor analysis yielded three clusters of situations: (a) sexual arousal/boredom/opportunity, (b) intoxication/locations/easy access, and (c) negative emotions. Discussion and conclusions This questionnaire could be employed to identify specific high-risk situations for lapse or relapse and as a measure of treatment outcome among therapy clients, but we recommend further examination of the psychometric properties and clinical utility of the questionnaire in treatment samples. Because only one of the three clusters reflected a consistent theme, we do not recommend averaging self-efficacy within factors to create subscales

Focus on therapeutic alliance: The psychometric properties of six measures across three treatments

The psychometric properties of six measures of therapeutic alliance (California Psychotherapy Alliance Scales; Penn Helping Alliance Rating Scale; Vanderbilt Therapeutic Alliance Scale; and the Working Alliance Inventory—therapist, client, and rater versions) were compared in a sample of substance-dependent individuals participating in a randomized clinical trial of three psychotherapies. Internal consistency, interrater reliability, and intercorrelations among the instruments were evaluated. Results supported the construct validity of the therapeutic alliance and indicated that all six measures had acceptable reliabilities.Correlations between observer and participant measures were comparatively low. Reliabilities did vary, however, by treatment condition, suggesting that psychometric properties, and by extension alliance-process-outcome relationships, may vary across treatments