Development and validation of a measure of adolescent dissociation: the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale

Abstract

This study describes the initial reliability and validity data on the Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES), a screening measure for pathological dissociation during adolescence. The A-DES showed good scale and subscale reliability, and, as hypothesized, increased scores were associated with reported trauma in a patient population. A-DES scores were able to distinguish dissociative disordered adolescents from a normal sample and from a patient sample with a variety of diagnoses.