TPC-Journal-V6-Issue2

The Professional Counselor /Volume 6, Issue 2 127 as not in need of further SUD assessment. This suggests that the decision rules’ cut scores may be too high for this sample. To test this hypothesis, the researchers investigated the SASSI-3’s FVA, FVOD, SYM, OAT and SAT scales’ specificity and sensitivity using ROC analyses (Youngstrom, 2014). The ROC analysis of the FVA scale produced an AUROC value of .861, p = .000, standard error = .026, with a 95% confidence interval range of .811 to .912. This indicates that there is a good agreement between the FVA scale and the counselors’ alcohol use disorder diagnoses (Youngstrom, 2014). A review of the coordinates of the curve (Figure 1) demonstrates that an adjusted FVA t score cut-off of 53.5 would provide the optimal balance between sensitivity (.79) and specificity (.80). A t score of 53.5 translates into an FVA raw score of approximately 6 for both sexes. Rule 1 was recalculated using a raw score of 6 for both sexes and a kappa statistic was calculated to determine the agreement rate between this new FVA cut score and the counselors’ alcohol use disorder diagnoses. The new kappa statistic was .551, p = .000. The new Rule 1 sensitivity and specificity rates were, respectively, .81 and .77. Rule 1’s false positive rate was .19 and the false negative rate was .23. Lowering the Rule 1 cut score to 6 improved the kappa statistic by .168. Figure 1. ROC Curve for FVA t Score Plotted Against Counselor Alcohol Use Disorder Diagnosis Note. Diagonal segments are produced by ties.