Book of Abstracts

Substance Use Disorder (SUD) is a mental health concern with a global impact. Accountability and self-forgiveness are psychological character traits that may impact the long-term therapeutic outcomes of SUD patients. This study is a preliminary step to a larger study to establish construct validity of accountability and self-forgiveness in a population of low level of education and SUD. Cognitive interviewing will be conducted with patients receiving care at an outpatient substance use clinic in Temple University’s Episcopal Hospital. The hospital is located in Northeast Philadelphia and serves a population with lower literacy rates, so it is important to ensure the language from measuring tools is accessible and content validity is established before proceeding with their use in the construct validity study. Willing patients from the clinic will participate in cognitive interviews evaluating their comprehension for six constructs. During the interviews, patients will be asked to define key terminology and rephrase the statements included in the constructs. The constructs being explored for their content validity are the Human Accountability Scale, Transcendent Accountability Scale, Heartland Forgiveness Scale, Transgression-Related Interpersonal Motivations Inventory, Toussaint Scale for Trait Forgiveness, and the Self-Forgiveness Dual-Process Scale. A qualitative content analysis will be done by the investigators who will collaborate on a coding format to group the interview responses based on common themes related to the patients’ understanding. Expected conclusions of this study will either confirm the content validity of the constructs or identify barriers to understanding allowing proper revisions before conducting a future quantitative analysis.