Citation

Heyman RE, Feldbau-Kohn SR, Ehrensaft MK, Langhinrichsen-Rohling J, O'Leary KD. J. Fam. Psychol. 2001; 15(2): 334-346.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York 11794-2500, USA. richard.heyman@sunysb.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Psychological Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11458637

PMCID

PMC1586116

Abstract

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.

Language: en