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A REVISION OF THE DYADIC ADJUSTMENT SCALE FOR USE WITH DISTRESSED AND NONDISTRESSED COUPLES: CONSTRUCT HIERARCHY AND MULTIDIMENSIONAL SCALES
Author(s) -
Busby Dean M.,
Christensen Clark,
Crane D. Russell,
Larson Jeffry H.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1995.tb00163.x
Subject(s) - psychology , construct validity , scale (ratio) , discriminant validity , construct (python library) , confirmatory factor analysis , homogeneous , sample (material) , statistics , psychometrics , social psychology , internal consistency , developmental psychology , mathematics , computer science , structural equation modeling , chemistry , physics , chromatography , quantum mechanics , combinatorics , programming language
The existing research on the Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) indicated that there were problems with some of the subscales and individual items. This study was designed to improve the instrument by following the standards of construct hierarchy. Through previous research and the analyses in this study, the subscales were found to contain some items that were homogeneous and others that were more heterogeneous. This problem was corrected by selecting out items that were homogeneous; 7 first‐order scales were created which were combined to creat the 3 second‐order concepts of consensus, satisfaction, and cohesion. With a sample of distressed and nondistressed couples, a series of confirmatory factor analyses was conducted. The factor analyses provided evidence for the construct validity of the new structure of the Revised DAS (RDAS) with the distressed, nondistressed, and total samples of this study, as well as with the sample from Spanier and Thompson's (1982) study. Additional analyses correlating the RDAS with another popular marital instrument provided more evidence for the construct validity of the RDAS. Criterion validity was demonstrated by discriminant analyses results. Both internal consistency and split‐half reliability estimates demonstrated that the RDAS was reliable. The result also supported dividing the RDAS into two alternative forms for use in pre‐ and posttest studies. Summary statistics for the RDAS are presented as are implications for the field of marriage and family therapy.