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Psychological Assessment1993, Vol. 5. No. 2, 238-240 C o p y r i
g h t 1 9 9 3 by t he American Psychological Asso c ia t io n Jn
c1040-3 590/93/S3.00
Reliability of the Dyadic Adjustment ScaleMichael P. Carey,
liana P. Spector, Larry J. Lantinga, and Dennis J. Krauss
This study examined the re liabil i ty of Spanier's (1976)
Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS). Middle-aged men and w o m e n (/ V =
158) completed the DAS on 2 occasions separated by approximately
2weeks. Separate alpha and stability coefficients were calculated
for each o f the 4 D AS subscales aswell as the Total score.
Coefficients alpha ranged from .7 0 (for the 4-item Affectional
Expressionsubscale) to .95 (for th e 32-item Total score), M dn =
.87. Stability coefficients ranged from .7 5(Affectional
Expression) to .87 (Total), M dn = .81. Partial correlations
revealed th at the stabilit y ofthe DA S was not influenced by
subjects' age, educational attain men t, nu mb er o f children, re
lation-ship duration, or the length of the test-retest interval.
These results suggest the D AS and i ts 4subscales ar e internally
consistent an d stable over th e interval examined in this
study.
Marital adjustment can profoundly affect quality of life.
In-deed, research has established the importance of marital
ad-justment for a variety of clinical endpoints, including
mentalhealth (e.g., Waring & Patton, 1984), somatic health
(e.g., Cho-wanec & Binik, 1989), and even longevity (Berkman
& Syme,1979). Given the importance of marital adjustment for
health,many social scientists routinely measure this construct in
theirresearch.
Marital adjustment can be measured with numerous ap-proaches,
including structured clinical interviews, behavioralrole-play
procedures, and in vivo observation. Although each ofthese
assessment strategies has its advantages, the most com-monly used
method in clinical research involves self-reportquestionnaires. At
least 20 self-report measures of marital ad-justment are available
in the literature (Birchnell, 1988; Span-ier, 1979). Of these, the
most widely used may be Spanier's(1976) Dyadic Adjustment Scale
(DAS). Spanier (1988) re-ported that the DAS had been used in more
than 1,000 studiesin the interval between 1976 and 1988. Although
the DAS hasbeen criticized (e.g., because of the questionable
clinical signifi-cance of some items; see Eddy, Heyman, &
Weiss, 1 9 9 1 , andFincham & Bradbury, 1987), many experts
recommend theDASover competing instruments becauseof its
brevity,applica-bility to nonmarried couples, and solid
psychometric proper-ties (cf. Bornstein & Bornstein, 1986;
Cohen, 1985; Jacobson &Margolin, 1979; Wincze & Carey,
1991).
Michael P. Carey an d liana P. Spector, Department of
Psychologyan d Center fo r Health an d Behavior, Syracuse U
niversity; Larry J. Lan-tinga and Dennis J. Krauss, Department of
Veterans Affairs MedicalCenter an d State University of New York
Health Science Center, Syra-cuse, New York.Preparation of this
report was facilitated by Grant DA07635-02from th e National
Institute o n Drug Abuse.W e thank Brooke Goldberg and Mark Kuzia
for their assistancewith data co ding and entry, and Kate B. Carey
for her helpful com-ments on an earlier version o f this
article.Correspondence con cerning this article sho uld be
addressed to Mi-chael P. Carey, Department of Psychology an d
Center fo r Health an dBehavior, 430 H untington Hall , Syracuse
University, Syracuse, NewYork 13244-2340.
Research has examined the internal consistency,validity,
andfactorial structure of the DAS (e.g., Sabourin, Lussier,
Laplante,& Wright, 1990; Sharpley & Cross, 1982; Spanier
&Thompson,1982); to our knowledge, however, no research has
examinedthe temporal stability of the DAS. Thus, the primary
purposeof this study was to examine the test-retest reliability of
theDAS. We also provide information regarding the internal
con-sistency of the DAS.
MethodSubjects were 11 0 men and 48 wome n w ho were currently
involvedin an intimate relationship: 89 % were married, 6% were
living together,and 5% were in a serious relationship bu t living
separately. (None o fthese men and wom en were involved with o ne
another.) T he averagedurat ion of these relation ships w as 21.3
years. T he subjects were pri-
mari ly W hite (92%) an d middle-aged (M - 53.3 years).
Ninety-six per-cent of the subjects had some high school education,
76% had com-pleted high school, and 25 % had graduated from
college. A nnu al fam-ily income levels were as follows: less than
$10,000 (16%);$10,000-20,000 (26%); $20,001-30,000 (17%);
$30,001-40,000 ( 1 1 % ) ;$40,001-50,000 (11%); and more than
$50,000 (19%). Eighty-one per-cent of the subjects ha d chi ldre n
(M = 2.4 children pe r subject).Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS)
T h e DAS (Spanier, 1976) provided a general measure of
satisfactionin an intim ate relationship; th is 32-item in stru men
t yields a Total scorean d fou r subscores: Dyadic Satisfaction,
Dyadic Cohesion, DyadicConsensus, and Aifectional Expression. The
items are written at an 8thgrade reading level (Jensen, W itcher,
& Upto n, 198 7), and m ost re-spondents can complete the
instrument in 10 min o r less. The D AS hasdemonstrated
discriminant validity by distinguishing betweenmarried and divorced
couples, an d concurrent validity by correlatingwith the Marital
Adjustment Scale (Locke & Wallace, 1959).Procedures
Subjects were recruited from tw o sources. First, 88 subjects
wererecruited during a routine office visit to an outpatient
Urology Clinicat the Syracuse Department o f Veterans Affairs (VA)
Medical Center.To obtain these subjects, 10 0 potential subjects
were approached by aresearch assistant (RA ) while they waited to
see their physician. Thesepatients were told that (a) the purpose
of the study was to learn more23 8
