MENU

Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS)

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) is 42 item survey that measures the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress, by asking the respondents at what frequency they have experienced symptoms over the past week. The measure constitutes of 3 subscales: depression, anxiety, and stress.

Categories

Geographies Tested: Australia

Populations Included: Female, Male

Age Range:

Items:

Depression
Dysphoria
1. I felt downhearted and blue
2. I felt sad and depressed
Hopelessness
3. I could see nothing in the future to be hopeful about
4. I felt that I had nothing to look forward to
Devaluation of life
5. I felt that life was meaningless
6. I felt that life wasn't worthwhile
Self-deprecation
7. I felt I was pretty worthless
8. I felt I wasn't worth much as a person
Lack of interest/involvement
9. I felt that I had lost interest in just about everything
10. I was unable to become enthusiastic about anything
Anhedonia
11. I couldn't seem to experience any positive feeling at all
12. I couldn't seem to get any enjoyment out of the things I did
Inertia
13. I just couldn't seem to get going
14. I found it difficult to work up the initiative to do things
Anxiety
Autonomic arousal
15. I was aware of the action of my heart in the absence of physical exertion (e.g, sense of heart rate increase, heart missing a beat)
16. I perspired noticeably (e.g. hands sweaty) in the absence of high temperatures or physical exertion
17. I was aware of dryness of my mouth
18. I experienced breathing difficulty (e.g. excessively rapid breathing, breathlessness in the absence of physical exertion)
19. I had difficulty in swallowing
Skeletal musculature effects
20. I had a feeling of shakiness (e.g. legs going to give way)
21. I experienced trembling (e.g. in the hands)
Situational anxiety
22. I was worried about situations in which I might panic and make a fool of myself
23. I found myself in situations which made me so anxious I was most relieved when they ended
24. I feared that I would be "thrown" by some trivial but unfamiliar task
Subjective experience of anxious affect
25. I felt I was close to panic
26. I felt terrified
27. I felt scared without any good reason
28. I had a feeling of faintness
Stress
Difficulty relaxing
29. I found it hard to wind down
30. I found it hard to calm down after something upset me
31. I found it difficult to relax
Nervous arousal
32. I felt that I was using a lot of nervous energy
33. I was in a state of nervous tension
Easily upset/agitated
34. I found myself getting upset rather easily
35. I found myself getting upset by quite trivial things
36. I found myself getting agitated
Irritable/over-reactive
37. I tended to over-react to situations
38. I found that I was very irritable
39. I felt that I was rather touchy
Impatient
40. I was intolerant of anything that kept me from getting on with what I was doing
41. I found myself getting impatient when I was delayed in any way (e.g. lifts, traffic lights, being kept waiting)
42. I found it difficult to tolerate interruptions to what I was doing

Response Options:
Did not apply to me at all - 0
Applied to me to some degree, or some of the time - 1
Applied to me a considerable degree, or a good part of the time - 2
Applied to me very much, or most of the time - 3

Scoring Procedures

Respondents respond to each item on a 4-point frequency scale, with 0 meaning did not apply to me at all and 3 meaning applied to me very much or most of the time. Then, scores for the Depression, Anxiety and Stress scales are determined by summing the scores for the relevant 14 items.

Original Citation

Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-U


Psychometric Score

Ease of Use Score

Scoring breakdown

Formative Research

Qualitative Research

Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework

Field Expert Input

Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing

Reliability

Internal

Test-retest

Interrater

Validity

Content

Face

Criterion (gold-standard)

Construct

KEY

Ease of Use

Readability

Scoring Clarity

Length

Join the EMERGE Community

to get the latest updates on new measures and guidance for survey researchers