DAS-4 Measures of marital satisfaction (Sabourin et al. 2005).

Previously used for Cohort 24 at age 9 months, the DAS-4 scale consists of two core

questions. The first question asks how frequently three separate behaviours/events

occur, with 6 response options ranging from “Never” to “More often than once a

day”. The behaviours/events in question are a mixture of positive and negative, to

provide a holistic insight into the dynamics and current status of the marriage. The

second question asks the respondent to rank their degree of happiness in their

marriage on a scale of 0 (“Extremely unhappy”) to 6 (“Perfect”), with 3 (“Happy”) taken

as a typical score. This scale is originally credited to DAS-4 and has been used in

varying iterations in multiple waves of Growing Up in Ireland, including the previous

wave for this birth cohort – lending its use with Cohort 24 at age 3 to future as well

as current comparisons longitudinally and cross-cohort.

Parental conflict