Can questionnaire reports correctly classify relationship distress and partner physical abuse?
Published
Journal Article
Relationship adjustment (e.g., Dyadic Adjustment Scale; DAS) and physical aggression (e.g., Conflict Tactics Scale) measures are used both as screening tools and as the sole criterion for classification. This study created face valid diagnostic interviews for relationship distress and physical abuse, through which one could compare preliminarily the classification properties of questionnaire reports. The DAS (and a global measure of relationship satisfaction) had modest agreement with a structured diagnostic interview; both questionnaires tended to overdiagnose distress compared with the interview. Results for partner abuse reiterated the need to go beyond occurrence of aggression as the sole diagnostic criterion, because men's aggression was more likely than women's to rise to the level of "abuse" when diagnostic criteria (injury or substantial fear) were applied.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Heyman, RE; Feldbau-Kohn, SR; Ehrensaft, MK; Langhinrichsen-Rohling, J; O'Leary, KD
Published Date
- June 2001
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 15 / 2
Start / End Page
- 334 - 346
PubMed ID
- 11458637
Pubmed Central ID
- 11458637
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 0893-3200
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1037//0893-3200.15.2.334
Language
- eng
Conference Location
- United States