This study describes the reliability reporting practices in empirical studies using eight adolescent alcohol screening tools and characterizes and explores variability in internal consistency estimates across samples. Of 119 observed administrations of these instruments, 40 (34%) reported usable reliability information. The Personal Experience Screening QuestionnaireProblem Severity scale generated average reliability estimates exceeding 0.90 (95% CI=0.90-0.96) and the Adolescent Alcohol Involvement Scale generated average score reliability estimates below 0.80 (95% CI=0.67-0.85). Average reliability estimates of the remaining instruments were distributed between these extremes. Sample characteristics were identified as potentially important predictors of variability in the reliability estimates of all the instruments and all instruments under evaluation generated more reliable scores in clinical settings (M=0.89) as opposed to nonclinical settings (M=0.82; r effect size (38)=0.29, p.10). Clinicians facing instrument selection decisions can use these data to guide their choices and researchers evaluating the performance of these instruments can use these data to inform their future studies.