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

Abstract

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 < .05) and clinic appointments during their 1st month postdischarge (77% vs. 53%; p < .05). Low-readiness participants were also more likely to attend all of their scheduled clinic appointments (26%) than were high-readiness participants (10%; p < .05).