Readiness to change versus readiness to seek help for alcohol problems: The development of the Treatment Readiness Tool (TReaT)

Objective: This study developed and psychometrically evaluated a short self-report measure for treatment readiness, a construct correlated with but distinct from general change readiness. This measure, the Treatment Readiness Tool (TReaT), was based on the transtheoretical model of behavior change. Method: A nontreatment-seeking sample of 748 patients from general hospitals who met criteria for at-risk or harmful drinking was recruited as part of an intervention study in Western Pomerania, Germany. Results: Exploratory (n = 498) and confirmatory (n = 250) factor analyses supported the presence of a three-factor structure (Precontemplation, Contemplation and Preparation) among high-risk drinkers who were not seeking treatment. High internal item consistency was found for the three TReaT scales, and strong convergent validity was obtained with measures of alcohol use and consequences. Pearson correlations between the three TReaT scales and parallel scales collected by a measure of general change readiness indicated that the two constructs were relatively distinct (19% shared variance). Conclusions: The findings suggest that measurement of treatment readiness might have advantages in predicting treatment compliance, processes and outcome relative to measures of general behavior change readiness. The predictive validity of the measure needs to be investigated in future studies, however.