College Activities and Behaviors Questionnaire (CABQ)

Abstract

The College Activities and Behaviors Questionnaire (CABQ) is a 22-item self-report measure designed to quantify the frequency of various activities and behaviors undertaken by college students over the previous week. Although the instrument contains 22 items covering a wide range of daily activities and substance consumption, it is often employed in research using a subset of items (typically seven) focusing on key areas of adjustment, including sleep patterns, interpersonal interactions, physical health, and journaling behaviors. The CABQ was specifically utilized in studies investigating the efficacy of psychological interventions, such as expressive writing, particularly among individuals considered vulnerable to depression, allowing researchers to track related behavioral changes.

Keywords

College adjustment, student behavior, health behaviors, self-report, expressive writing, coping mechanisms, psychological intervention, depression vulnerability

Authors

J.W. Pennebaker, M. Colder, L.K. Sharp

Purpose

The primary purpose of the CABQ is to serve as a generic, yet detailed, measure of the daily and weekly behaviors of college students. It provides quantifiable data on activities ranging from academic study and social interaction to substance use and physical health maintenance.

Crucially, the scale is designed not just for general assessment but also to function as a sensitive outcome measure in experimental psychology. Its application is particularly noted in studies examining the impact of interventions—such as the therapeutic benefits of expressive writing or journaling—on students’ daily functioning and overall coping processes. By monitoring specific behaviors like sleep, social engagement, and emotional processing (journaling), the CABQ helps researchers determine if psychological interventions lead to measurable behavioral shifts.

Construct

The CABQ primarily measures the construct of College Adjustment and Health Behaviors as observed through frequency counts over a short, defined period (the previous week). The behaviors captured reflect several underlying dimensions critical to student well-being and academic success:

• Physical Health and Self-Care: Items related to exercise, sleep difficulty, medical visits, and consumption of substances (alcohol, caffeine, drugs).
• Social and Interpersonal Engagement: Frequency of interactions with parents, old friends, new friends, and meaningful heart-to-heart discussions.
• Coping and Emotional Processing: Behaviors like journaling (writing down deepest thoughts and feelings), which are central to the scale’s use in expressive writing research.
• Academic and Behavioral Stressors: Frequency of studying, organizational involvement, and thoughts about dropping out of college.

Validity

Specific, detailed validity coefficients (e.g., convergent, discriminant validity indices) are typically discussed within the primary research articles that employ the CABQ, most notably the foundational work by Pennebaker and colleagues (1990). The scale’s utility demonstrates strong Criterion Validity in the context of intervention research, where specific items (like journaling frequency) are directly linked to the experimental manipulation.

The selection of the core seven items for specialized use suggests that these specific behaviors possess high ecological and predictive validity concerning psychological outcomes, particularly for individuals experiencing distress or vulnerability to depression. The measure is considered valid for tracking short-term behavioral fluctuations following emotionally significant events or therapeutic writing exercises.

Reliability

As the CABQ is primarily a frequency count checklist designed to capture heterogeneous daily events rather than a single, unified psychological trait, traditional internal consistency measures (like Cronbach’s Alpha) are often less relevant for the full 22-item scale. Reliability is generally inferred from its application in repeated-measures designs, where the stability and consistency of the measured behaviors over time, particularly in response to an intervention, are assessed.

For research purposes, the reliability of the specific subsets of items used (e.g., the seven core items) is usually established within the context of the study. The scale’s reliability rests on the premise that students can accurately recall and report the frequency of clearly defined, objective behaviors (like number of times exercising or number of coffees consumed) over the preceding seven days.

Factor Analysis

Formal exploratory or confirmatory factor analysis of the full 22-item CABQ is rarely the primary focus of the research utilizing the scale, as the items are intended to represent distinct, observable activities rather than latent factors. However, researchers often group items logically into thematic clusters (e.g., health, social, coping) corresponding to the behavioral domains being investigated.

When utilized in the context of expressive writing studies, the emphasis shifts from identifying underlying factors to measuring change in specific variables—such as journaling frequency or physical symptoms—that are theorized to be impacted by the writing intervention. Therefore, the scale’s structure is often treated as a collection of independent outcome measures rather than a single, factorially derived instrument.

Instrument

Test Type: Self-Report Questionnaire / Behavioral Frequency Checklist

Format: 22 items requiring numerical responses indicating the frequency of behaviors or consumption over the preceding week.

Language Available: English (Primary publication language)

Population Group: University or College Students

Age Group: Typically 18-25 years (Emerging adulthood/Traditional college age)

Population Details: Individuals enrolled in higher education; often used with non-clinical samples or samples identified as vulnerable to stress or depression.

Test Methodology: Respondents provide a count for “how many times” they engaged in each activity or consumed specific items within the last seven days. The data is quantitative frequency data.

Keywords

Student functioning, behavioral assessment, psychological scale, J.W. Pennebaker, Psychometrics, college life, interpersonal interactions, self-report

Authors

Author ORCID Identifier: Not provided

Affiliation Email addresses: Refer to primary publication or institutional records for J.W. Pennebaker (University of Texas at Austin)

Correspondence Address: Refer to primary publication: Pennebaker, J.W. (1990)

Permissions & Fee and Test Year

Test Year: 1990 (Based on foundational publication).

Permissions & Fee: The CABQ is often considered a research tool developed by academic authors. Permission for use should be sought directly from the author, J.W. Pennebaker, or the relevant copyright holder, typically the institution or the journal publishing the primary article. Research use may be free, but commercial or large-scale application may require formal licensing.

Reference’s

The core source for the development and initial use of the CABQ is:

• Pennebaker, J.W., Colder, M., & Sharp, L.K. (1990). Accelerating the coping process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 528-537.

Items of the College Activities and Behaviors Questionnaire (CABQ)

IMPORTANT: The following scale items must be preserved in their original language and must not be changed in any way.

Within the last week, how MANY TIMES have you done each of the following:

1. Number of times exercised strenuously
2. Number of times had difficulty falling asleep
3. Talked on the phone to one or both parents
4. Talked on the phone to old friends who are not at your college
5. Visited a physician or the student health center for illness
6. Ate far too much at one meal
7. Had a heart-to-heart talk with someone here at college
8. Attended a meeting of an organization (e.g., church, fraternity)
9. Studied
10. Thought about dropping out of college
11. Talked or corresponded with an old girlfriend or boyfriend
12. Made a new friend
13. Received a traffic ticket (including parking violation)
14. Written down your deepest thoughts and feelings

In the last week, how many of the following have you consumed:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Doses of prescribed drugs
• Cigarettes
• Doses of nonprescribed drugs
• Cups of coffee
• Snacks with sugar
• Aspirin or other pain reliever
• Vitamins

Demographic Information Collected (often appended to the scale):

• Sex
• Age
• Year in College
• Marital status
• Number of hours currently taking