The Victorian Gambling Screen: Reliability and validation in a clinical population

Barry Tolchard, MW Battersby

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

There is a need to establish reliability and the various forms of validity in all measures in order to feel confident in the use of such tools across a wide diversity of settings. The aim of this study is to describe the reliability and validity of the Victorian Gambling Screen (VGS) and in particular one of the sub-scales (Harm to Self—HS) in a specialist problem gambling treatment service in Adelaide, Australia. Sixty-seven consecutive gamblers were assessed using a previously validated clinical interview and the VGS (Ben-Tovim et al., The Victorian Gambling Screen: project report. Victorian Research Panel, Melbourne, 2001). The internal consistency of the combined VGS scales had a Cronbach’s alpha of .85 with the HS scale .89. There was satisfactory evidence of convergent validity which included moderate correlations with another measure of gambling—the South Oaks Gambling Screen. There were also moderate correlations with other measures of psychopathology. Finally, how the VGS may best be used in clinical settings is discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)623-638
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Gambling Studies
Volume26
Issue number4
Early online date25 Dec 2009
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2010
Externally publishedYes

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