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Journal of Pediatric Psychology 17(3) pp. 345-357, 1992
© 1992 Society of Pediatric Psychology

research-article

Measuring Marital Distress in Couples with Chronically Ill Children: The Dyadic Adjustment Scale1

Jan Gordon Walker2, Ian G. Manion, Paula F. Cloutier and Susan M. Johnson

Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, University of Ottawa

2A11 correspondence should be addressed to Jan Gordon Walker, Department of Psychology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, 401 Smyth Road, Ottawa, Ontario, KIH 8L1, Canada.

The idea that couples with chronically ill children are particularly at risk for marital distress has been supported by clinical observation and empirical research. Three recent controlled studies, however, did not find evidence for this increased risk. A possible explanation for the discrepant findings is that these three studies employed Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) as a unidimensional measure of marital adjustment. To develop a better understanding of the discrepant findings of risk for marital distress in couples with chronically ill children, the present study examined both the appropriateness of the DAS's published norms as well as the criterion validity of the DAS for use in this population of couples. Three hundred and sixteen parents (158 couples) from a large urban pediatric health care setting completed a survey investigating interest and need to participate in an intervention program for marital distress. Results indicated that this instrument can reliably predict marital distress in this population of couples, however, mean DAS scores are higher than those established by Spanier.

Key words: chronic illness; children; parent marital distress; Dyadic Adjustment Scale.


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