Walker J G, Manion I G, Cloutier P F, Johnson S M
Department of Psychology, Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Ottawa, Canada.
J Pediatr Psychol. 1992 Jun;17(3):345-57. doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/17.3.345.
The idea that couples with chronically ill children are particularly at risk for marital distress has been supported by clinical observation and empirical research. Three recent controlled studies, however, did not find evidence for this increased risk. A possible explanation for the discrepant findings is that these three studies employed Spanier's Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS) as a unidimensional measure of marital adjustment. To develop a better understanding of the discrepant findings of risk for marital distress in couples with chronically ill children, the present study examined both the appropriateness of the DAS's published norms as well as the criterion validity of the DAS for use in this population of couples. Three hundred and sixteen parents (158 couples) from a large urban pediatric health care setting completed a survey investigating interest and need to participate in an intervention program for marital distress. Results indicated that this instrument can reliably predict marital distress in this population of couples, however, mean DAS scores are higher than those established by Spanier.
患有慢性病儿童的夫妻尤其面临婚姻困扰风险这一观点，已得到临床观察和实证研究的支持。然而，最近三项对照研究并未找到这种风险增加的证据。对这些相互矛盾的研究结果的一种可能解释是，这三项研究采用斯帕尼尔的二元调适量表（DAS）作为婚姻调适的单维度测量方法。为了更好地理解患有慢性病儿童的夫妻婚姻困扰风险的矛盾研究结果，本研究考察了DAS已发表常模的适用性以及DAS在这类夫妻群体中的效标效度。来自一个大型城市儿科医疗保健机构的316名家长（158对夫妻）完成了一项调查，调查他们参与婚姻困扰干预项目的兴趣和需求。结果表明，该工具能够可靠地预测这类夫妻群体中的婚姻困扰，然而，DAS的平均得分高于斯帕尼尔所确定的得分。
