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Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21

DASS-21
psychologyhealth sciencesFree for research use

A 21-item short form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, with three 7-item subscales measuring depression, anxiety, and stress over the past week.

Items
21
Response format
4-point severity/frequency scale (0-3)
Version
1.0
Subscales
3

Ready-to-cite methods sentence

Depression, anxiety, and stress were measured with the DASS-21 (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995), three 7-item subscales with good-to-excellent internal consistency (α = .82-.90).

Reliability & validation

Validation population
Community adults (Henry & Crawford, 2005)
Cronbach's α
0.82–0.9

Subscales

DepressionAnxietyStress

Response anchors

Did not apply to me at all · Applied to me to some degree / some of the time · Applied to a considerable degree / a good part of the time · Applied to me very much / most of the time

Known limitations

The 21-item short form yields less stable subscale scores than the 42-item original; the anxiety and stress subscales correlate, reflecting shared negative affectivity.

Original citation

Lovibond, P. F., Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335-343.

https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-U

Questions researchers ask

What does the DASS-21 measure?

A 21-item short form of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales, with three 7-item subscales measuring depression, anxiety, and stress over the past week.

How many items does the DASS-21 have?

The Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) has 21 items across 3 subscales: Depression, Anxiety, Stress.

Is the DASS-21 free to use?

The DASS-21 is free to use for non-commercial academic research. You don't need to pay a license fee, but you should always cite the original publication.

Is the DASS-21 reliable?

Validation studies report Cronbach's α of 0.82–0.9. See the reliability section for the population studied and full statistics.

Who developed the DASS-21, and how do I cite it?

Lovibond, P. F., Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33(3), 335-343. https://doi.org/10.1016/0005-7967(94)00075-U

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Library entry verified July 2026. Metadata is provided for reference; item wording is available inside Folio Surveyor, subject to each instrument's licensing.