DASS-21
ValidatedDepression Anxiety Stress Scales – 21 (DASS-21)
14+ yearsSelf~5 min21 questions
Please read each statement and circle a number 0, 1, 2 or 3 which indicates how much the statement applied to you over the past week. There are no right or wrong answers. Do not spend too much time on any statement.
Report details · optional
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About this screener — evidence, source, alternatives
The short form of the DASS: seven items per scale for depression, anxiety (physiological arousal, panic) and stress (tension, irritability, difficulty relaxing). Scale scores are multiplied by 2 so they can be compared with the full 42-item DASS and its published norms. Useful for clarifying where emotional disturbance is concentrated.
Evidence · validated
The DASS-21 items were chosen so that each scale score is very close to half the full-scale score, and published studies show it has the same factor structure and gives similar results to the full 42-item DASS (DASS FAQ). Scores are multiplied by 2 for comparison with DASS norms. No severity cut-offs are applied here: the authors publish them only in the manual, describing them as arbitrary labels relative to the population.
Free alternative to
- Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) / Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) · Pearson
Paid anxiety and depression inventories; the DASS-21 covers both (plus stress) and is public domain.
Source & licence
Lovibond SH, Lovibond PF. Manual for the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales. 2nd ed. Sydney: Psychology Foundation; 1995.
Licence: Public domain — the DASS FAQ states permission is not needed; forms may be downloaded and copied without restriction
May not be modified or sold for profit. The authors ask that computed scores are not shown to respondents and that no automated interpretation is given; scores here are for the clinician. Severity labels are published only in the DASS manual and are not reproduced.
Official source ↗