Use of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment to measure motivational readiness to change in psychiatric and dually diagnosed individuals.

In this report, the original 4-factor structure of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA; C. C. DiClemente & S. O. Hughes, 1990) was replicated, and the scale's internal consistency was found to be acceptable in a sample of 120 psychiatric and dually diagnosed inpatient participants, who had participated in a randomized clinical trial comparing standard treatment (ST) and ST plus motivational interviewing. Contrary to the authors' hypotheses, participants classified as having low motivational readiness to change, based on their URICA scores, demonstrated greater treatment adherence than high-readiness participants, in that they attended a greater proportion of therapy groups while hospitalized (54% vs. 39%; p     

Gender differences among recreational gamblers: Association with the frequency of alcohol use.

This study examines the interactive effects of alcohol use and gender on health and gambling attitudes and behaviors in recreational gamblers. The Gambling Impact and Behavior Study (D. Gerstein et al., 1999) surveyed by telephone 2,417 adults targeted to be representative of the U.S. adult population. The authors compared male and female recreational gamblers (n = 1,471) who were stratified by frequency of alcohol use on measures of health and gambling. Significant Gender × Alcohol Use group interactions were observed such that moderate-to-high frequency alcohol consumption correlated with heavier gambling in men than in women, whereas such an association did not exist among abstinent or low frequency drinkers. There were few gender differences in the correlations between alcohol consumption and health. Future research should consider gender-related influences when examining alcohol use and gambling behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The URICA as a measure of motivation to change among treatment-seeking individuals with concurrent alcohol and cocaine problems.

The original 4-factor structure of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA; C. C. DiClemente & S. 0. Hughes, 1990) was replicated, and the scale's internal consistency was found to be acceptable in a sample of 106 cocaine- and alcohol-dependent participants receiving either disulfiram or no medication in a psychotherapy trial. In addition, participants categorized as having high Committed Action (CA), a new URICA composite, had a significantly greater percentage of days abstinent from both alcohol and cocaine (85.6%) than low-CA participants (72.7%, p