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Test Evaluation: DASS

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Test Evaluation: DASS
The Depression anxiety and stress scale (DASS-21) is a 21-item quantitative measure of distress that has 3 scales- anxiety, stress and depression, each of which has 7-items (Henry & Crawford, 2005). The DASS-21 is a shorter version of the full 42-item questionnaire (DASS) both of which are typically used to discriminate between the three related states of depression, anxiety and stress (Antony, Bieling, Cox, Enns, & Swinson, 1998). Distinguishing between these states has proven difficult, particularly between anxiety and depression (Clark & Watson, 1991a) . Many of the major scales predominantly measure the common factor of negative affectivity (Watson & Clark, 1984). While the full version DASS is used in both clinical and research settings, the DASS-21 is typically used for research purposes (Lovibond, 2013). As such this paper will evaluate the empirical evidence for the validity and reliability of the DASS-21 for research purposes.

Evidence for Validity
The DASS-21 shares many similarities with the tripartite model of depression (Brown, Chorpita, Korotitsch, & Barlow, 1997), which posits that the explanation of an affective domain requires the evaluation of both common and distinct elements (Clark & Watson, 1991b). The tripartite model argues that factors of anxiety and depression can be categorised as having general distress (negative affect) as well as distinct symptoms, namely hyper-arousal, in the case of anxiety and anhedonia, in the case of

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