The Alcoholics Anonymous Affiliation Scale: Development, Reliability, and Norms for Diverse Treated and Untreated Populations

Affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is an important variable to measure in many clinical and research activities. This paper reports on the development of an AA affiliation scale, and demonstrates its utility in a sample of 927 alcohol treatment seekers and 674 untreated problem drinkers. The scale is short (9 items), covers a range of AA experiences, and is internally consistent across diverse demographic groups, multiple health services settings, and treated and untreated populations. The validity of the scale is supported by the findings that treatment seekers report significantly higher AA affiliation than do untreated problem drinkers, and inpatients report higher affiliation than outpatients. Potential clinical and research applications of the scale are proposed.