Factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the “Dysfunctional Attitude Scale-Revised”

The Dysfunctional Attitude Scale (DAS) is a 40-item measure of dysfunctional schemas, a key construct of the cognitive model of depression. Most research has relied on the total score because of the mixed results of previous exploratory factor analyses conducted on the DAS. Accordingly, a revised, 17-item version of the DAS (hereafter, the DAS-R) has been recently proposed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and containing two factors: Perfectionism/Performance evaluation and Dependency. This study analyzes the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the DAS-R with a total of 629 participants. The DAS-R showed good internal consistency, temporal stability, and discriminant and convergent validity. CFA supported the two-factor solution found in the original scale; however, a hierarchical factor model with two first-order factors and a general factor showed the best fit of the data. The DAS-R provides general and specific measures of dysfunctional schemas that are theoretically meaningful.