The Divorce Adjustment Inventory-Revised: Validation of a Parental Report Concerning Children's Post-Custody Adjustment

The newly revised Divorce Adjustment Inventory (DAI-R) is validated across two samples of divorced families. The DAI-R is a parent report instrument that assesses child adjustment and family functioning after separation. This inventory is a 42-item, empirically derived instrument that was found to be predictive of different criterion measures of child adjustment and family functioning. Five patterns of divorce were identified in a factor analysis. The five factors did not correlate with each other. Scales were developed based on each factor and found to have internal consistency, with Cronbach alphas ranging from .65 to .84. The construct validity of the inventory was established with separate measures of family functioning and child adjustment in each sample: the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD), the Bloom Family Assessment Scale (FAS), the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Parent Evaluation Form (PEF). Significant correlations were found between DAI-R factors and the above measures. Implications for the early detection and treatment of divorce maladjustment and for divorce adjustment programs are noted along with recommendations for furore research. The relation of the identified factors with current conceptual models in the field is also discussed.