title: Measuring Dysfunctional Attitudes in the General Population: The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (form A) Revised.
abstract: The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) was designed to measure the intensity of dysfunctional attitudes, a hallmark feature of depression. Various exploratory factor analytic studies of the DAS form A (DAS-A) yielded mixed results. The current study was set up to compare the fit of various factor models. We used a large community sample (N = 8,960) to test the previously proposed factor models of the DAS-A using confirmatory factor analysis. The retained model of the DAS-A was subjected to reliability and validity analyses. All models showed good fit to the data. Finally, a two-factor solution of the DAS-A was retained, consisting of 17 items. The factors demonstrated good reliability and convergent construct validity. Significant associations were found with depression. Norm-scores were presented. We advocate the use of a 17-item DAS-A, which proved to be useful in measuring dysfunctional beliefs. On the basis of previous psychometric studies, our study provides solid evidence for a two-factor model of the DAS-A, consisting of 'dependency' and 'perfectionism/performance evaluation'.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Psychological Science, Maastricht University, P.O. Box 616, 6200 MD Maastricht, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: L Esther
authors.initials: LE
authors.lastname: de Graaf
authors.forename: Jeffrey
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Roelofs
authors.forename: Marcus J H
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Huibers