The Higher Power Relationship Scale: A Validation.

Social workers often need a larger range of assessment scales to be used in education, research, and practice. The Higher Power Relationship Scale (HPRS) is a new brief instrument designed for easy administration and scoring that may be of use to social work educators, researchers, and practitioners, particularly those who work in the field of addictions. This paper describes the HPRS; provides information about its administration, scoring, and interpretation; and describes the initial research conducted to validate the scale. The results clearly indicate that the scale ( I )has good reliability, (2) is strong enough in terms of its measurement error traits to recommend it for use in educational, research, and clinical settings, and (3) appears to be acceptable in terms of its content and construct validity. Preliminary use in chemically dependent settings illustrated the value of the scale in understanding respondents' relationships with a higher power and Alcoholics Anonymous affiliation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]