Reliability and validity of a short form of the tobacco craving questionnaire

The Tobacco Craving Questionnaire (TCQ) is a valid and reliable 47-item self-report instrument that assesses tobacco craving in four dimensions: emotionality, expectancy, compulsivity, and purposefulness. For use in research and clinical settings, we constructed a 12-item version of the TCQ by selecting three items from each of the four factors that exhibited optimal within-factor reliability (Cronbach's alpha coefficient) and inter-item correlation. Smokers (N=196) completed the TCQ-Short Form (TCQ-SF) after overnight tobacco deprivation and on a separate day during ad libitum smoking. Confirmatory factor analyses indicated acceptable model fit for a 4-factor model, with congruence coefficients suggesting high to very high similarity in factor patterns and magnitude of factor loadings between the TCQ and TCQ-SF in both conditions. Scores on each factor were significantly greater after tobacco deprivation than ad libitum smoking, were associated with measures of tobacco withdrawal, and varied with degree of nicotine dependence. Cronbach's alpha coefficients and average inter-item correlations were similar in both conditions and were consistent with reliability values obtained in the initial validation of the TCQ. Test-retest correlation coefficients were also similar to those found in a previous study. These findings suggest that the TCQ-SF is as valid and reliable as the 47-item TCQ in measuring tobacco craving.