Psychometric properties of the Brazilian version of the Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire.

Introduction: The Personal Experience Screening Questionnaire (PESQ) is an instrument devised for assessing the magnitude of drug misuse among adolescents. However, its psychometric properties have not been evaluated in adolescent samples outside the United States. Objective: To assess the internal reliability and validity of the Brazilian version of the PESQ. Method: A cross-sectional study was carried out with 84 adolescents from a clinical sample and a community-based sample. All of them answered the PESQ. Results: Among adolescents from the community, the PESQ problem severity index, which can vary from 18 to 72, was 26.48±9.28, whereas the clinical sample scored 42.89±10.02 (p<0.001). Cronbach's alpha was 0.91. Factor analysis resulted in a four-factor solution. Furthermore, both samples also had different mean scores for the other distinct content areas measured by the instrument. Conclusion: Evidence to support the reliability and validity of the Brazilian version of the Personal Experience Questionnaire was found.