The Semi-Structured Assessment for the Genetics of Alcoholism (SSAGA) was developed by the COGA team (Bucholz et al., 1994). The SSAGA included assessments of many diagnosable forms of psychopathology, based on the third and fourth editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM: American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Individual SSAGA items were modified from existing, validated semi-structured interviews (e.g., the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM [SCID]). The modifications made to these existing items improved upon many aspects, but most germane to the present research was the attempt to tease apart the comorbidity between alcohol misuse and antisocial behavior (i.e., identifying antisocial behavior that was related to alcohol and drug misuse, or not). SSAGA scores for antisocial behavior and alcohol misuse scores exhibited good inter-rater agreement, test-retest reliability, invariance across in-person and telephone administration methods, and agreement with other well-validated interview assessments of alcohol misuse and antisocial behavior (Begleiter et al., 2995; Bucholz et al., 1994, 1996; Hesselbrock, Easton, Bucholz, Schuckit, & Hesselbrock, 1999; Kramer et al., 2009).
