Development and Validation of the Volitional Components Inventory for Drug Rehabilitation

Long-term recovery from drug abuse is a volitional process. Until now, no measure has been available for assessment of executive functioning capacity in this process. This study aims to identify a volitional process for drug addiction rehabilitation and to develop the Volitional Components Inventory for Drug Rehabilitation (VCI-DR). An item pool was constructed, based on theory construction, individual- and group-focused interviews, and expert feedback. Results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses suggested a structure with five factors: motivation control, impulse control, arousal control, self-discipline, and action management. The VCI-DR displayed promising convergent and discriminant validity with theoretically predicted criterion variables (sense of control, indecisiveness, impulsiveness, motivation of drug addiction rehabilitation, and emotion regulation). In addition, results showed good test–retest reliability, with excellent internal consistencies. Taken together, this research offers promising support for the VCI-DR, potentially advancing both basic and applied addiction research.