Title of Assessment
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS)
Author(s)
Lovibond S.H & Lovibond P. F.
Year of Publication/Publisher
The University of New South Wales
1995
Identify Type of Assessment
criterion-referenced
norm-referenced
questionnaire
Cost (identify source) & How to Access Assessment (include link if possible)
$55 if you want the manual, but otherwise free
Population (who it is appropriate for [age, diagnosis, etc.])
18+
TBI and pain management
Appropriate Settings (potential practice settings appropriate to administer assessment in)
outpatient, inpatient, SNF, acute care, rehabilitation hospitals, and primary care settings
Purpose of Assessment & Function(s)/Area(s) Assessed
The depression scale measures dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-deprecation, lack of interest, anhedonia, and inertia. The anxiety scale measures autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects, and situational anxiety. The stress scale measures sensitivity to levels of chronic nonspecific arousal, difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, and being easily agitated.
Administration (time to administer, group/individual, if there are subtests, can they be completed individually, are there specific instructions to ensure standardization, etc.)
10-20 minutes
14 totals items each with 2-5 subtests
not all three scales (depression, anxiety, and stress) need to be given together
User Qualifications
no qualifications or training required but recommended individual administering understands instructions and can interpret findings
Materials Required
DASS questionnaire, score sheet, writing utensil
Scoring Procedure (how is assessment scored and what does score indicate)
There is a scoring template which indicates the items that belong to each scale. Individuals who are taking this are asked to use a 4-point severity/frequency scale for those factors they have experienced in the past week. Multiply summed scores by 2. The full DASS will be 14 items per scale. The scoring for the DASS goes as follows;
Normal: depression 0-9, anxiety 0-7, stress 0-14
Mild: depression 10-13, anxiety 8-9, stress 15-18
Moderate: depression 14-20, anxiety 10-14, stress 19-25
Severe: depression 21-27, anxiety 15-19, stress 26-33
Extremely severe: depression 28+, anxiety 20+, stress 34+
Psychometrics/Standardization (norms, reliability/validity studies)
good interrater reliability
Strengths & Weaknesses of Assessment
strengths
covers depth in all scales
quick to administer
inexpensive
weaknesses
scoring is time-consuming
no administration qualifications
References
Ali, A. M., Alkhamees, A. A., Hori, H., Kim, Y., & Kunugi, H. (2021). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21: Development and Validation of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 8-Item in Psychiatric Patients and the General Public for Easier Mental Health Measurement in a Post COVID-19 World. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(19), 10142. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910142
Brown, T. A., Chorpita, B. F., Korotitsch, W., & Barlow, D. H. (1997). Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in clinical samples. Behaviour research and therapy, 35(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(96)00068
Lovibond, S.H. & Lovibond, P.F. (1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. (2nd. Ed.) Sydney: Psychology Foundation.
Moya, E., Larson, L. M., Stewart, R. C., Fisher, J., Mwangi, M. N., & Phiri, K. S. (2022). Reliability and validity of depression anxiety stress scale (DASS)-21 in screening for common mental disorders among postpartum women in Malawi. BMC psychiatry, 22(1), 352. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03994-0
Title of Assessment:
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale Youth (DASS-Y)
Author(s):
Lovibond and Lovibond
Year of Publication/Publisher:
1995
Identify Type of Assessment:
Criterion validation
normative
questionnaire
Cost:
Can access for free
Can also download manual online
Dass_template.pdf (unsw.edu.au)
Population:
Children 7-18
Diagnosis does not necessarily impact whether or when to use this assessment
youth with trauma, adults with trauma, mental health conditions, individuals who acquired a physical disability/born with one.
Appropriate Settings:
inpatient, outpatient, community-based, home health
Purpose of Assessment & Areas Assessed:
The depression scale measures dysphoria, hopelessness, devaluation of life, self-deprecation, lack of interest, anhedonia, and inertia. The anxiety scale measures autonomic arousal, skeletal muscle effects, and situational anxiety. The stress scale measures sensitivity to levels of chronic nonspecific arousal, difficulty relaxing, nervous arousal, and being easily agitated.
Administration: 7 items per scale-
Depression scale, Anxiety Scale, Stress Scale
Can be administered to a group or individually
You do not have to administer all three scales but since each of them is closely related it would be useful to use all three.
10-20 minutes to administer
DASS-Y: 21 items, 7 items per scale (standalone instrument with scores that cannot be directly compared to the adult questionnaire).
User Qualifications:
The DASS questionnaire is a public domain- which means permission to use the DASS is not needed. No special skills are required to administer- whoever is reading and interpreting results should have appropriate training to understand results.
Materials Required:
Questionnaire, scoring sheet, pen/pencil
Scoring Procedure:
There is a scoring template that indicates the items that belong to each scale. Individuals are asked on a 4-point Likert scale; 0=not true of you, 1= a little true of you, 2= fairly true of you, and 3= very true of you. Apply the scoring template and add up the scores. You do NOT need to multiply the scores by 2 since this version stands alone from the other versions of the DASS. Percentile of 50 indicates average and percentiles above 90 indicates more significant distress. The higher the scores indicates more distress.
Psychometrics/Standardization:
Internal reliability is 0.74, 0.66, and 0.76. Pearson Correlation coefficient was 0.61 and p<0.001. There is evidence of convergent validity with other measures of negative affect and with diagnostic assessments. Internal consistency, predictive validity, and discriminant validity varied between 0.939-0.959
Strengths & Weaknesses:
Strengths:
wide variety of coverage between the three subscales
offered in a lot of different languages
does not take that long to administer
can be used anywhere
not expensive, accessible
multiple versions available
do not have to administer all of it at once
can help early prevention and intervention measures.
Weaknesses:
scoring can be time-consuming.
mean scores may not be fully compliant with different ages that the DASS can be administered to
References:
Ali, A. M., Alkhamees, A. A., Hori, H., Kim, Y., & Kunugi, H. (2021). The Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 21: Development and Validation of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale 8-Item in Psychiatric Patients and the General Public for Easier Mental Health Measurement in a Post COVID-19 World. International journal of environmental research and public health, 18(19), 10142. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph181910142
Lovibond, S.H. & Lovibond, P.F. (1995). Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. (2nd. Ed.) Sydney: Psychology Foundation.
Brown, T. A., Chorpita, B. F., Korotitsch, W., & Barlow, D. H. (1997). Psychometric properties of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) in clinical samples. Behavior research and therapy, 35(1), 79–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0005-7967(96)00068-x
Szabo, M., & Lovibond, P. F. (2022). Development and Psychometric Properties of the DASS-Youth (DASS-Y): An Extension of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) to Adolescents and Children. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 766890. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.766890
Moya, E., Larson, L. M., Stewart, R. C., Fisher, J., Mwangi, M. N., & Phiri, K. S. (2022). Reliability and validity of depression anxiety stress scale (DASS)-21 in screening for common mental disorders among postpartum women in Malawi. BMC psychiatry, 22(1), 352. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12888-022-03994-0