The development and validation of a simpatia scale for Hispanics entering drug treatment

A 17-item simpatia scale was developed for use with Hispanic substance abusers using confirmatory factor analytic techniques in a sample of 144 daily opioid users. The overall scale had good internal consistency and demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity. The simpatia scale was constructed to examine social attributes reflecting agreeableness, respect of others, and politeness. The Agreeableness subscale addressed issues related to agreeing with others, similarity of opinions between self and others, and if clients openly disagreed with others. The Respect subscale addressed issues related to saying good things about others, trusting others, and treating others with respect. The Politeness subscale addressed issues related to avoiding conflict with others, doing favors, and treating others as equals. A cross-validation study demonstrated that simpatia was positively related to social support, social conformity treatment service satisfaction, and client rating of counselor skills, whereas it was negatively related to hostility.