Development of an Ultra Brief Version of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-6)
Abstract
Standardized questionnaires to assess psychiatric illness are useful tools to gauge symptomatology in a range of settings. However, many of the questionnaires that are most commonly employed in research settings are too lengthy to be practical in non-research contexts. For this reason, there has been a recent movement to develop short forms of existing measures that could be used in clinical settings as a screener for referral purposes or to monitor changes in symptoms as treatment progresses. One ubiquitous questionnaire that had not been examined with regard to the feasibility of economizing its questions is the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), frequently used to discriminate between the three related states of emotional disturbance: depression, anxiety and stress. The present research sought to develop a psychometrically-sound short-form of the DASS. Data was drawn from a community sample of adults. Results demonstrate that six items from the DASS-21, can be used to form a shortened version of the measure which retains many of the same psychometric strengths previously documented. Thus, this research establishes the DASS-6 as a promising ultra-brief measure to be used in clinical practice.
Subject Area
Clinical psychology
Recommended Citation
Wilkerson, Sara, "Development of an Ultra Brief Version of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales (DASS-6)" (2022). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI29321731.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI29321731
