Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale

The Fisher Divorce Adjustment Scale (FDAS) is a 100-item questionnaire created by counselor Bruce T. Fisher in the 1980s to measure how individuals adjust emotionally after a marital separation.^[1] It produces scores in six areas: disentanglement, grief, anger, self-worth, social self-worth, and social trust.^[2]

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Fisher first introduced the FDAS in the late 1970s through his doctoral research and expanded its use in the Rebuilding seminars, a ten-week divorce-recovery program.^[1] The scale was intended as both a diagnostic entry tool and a way to monitor recovery progress. Although less widely known than clinical inventories such as the Beck Depression Inventory, the FDAS gained traction in counseling contexts that specifically address divorce.^[2]

The FDAS contains 100 statements covering six domains of divorce recovery:

• Disentanglement – emotional separation from the former partner
• Grief – intensity of loss and sadness
• Anger – residual resentment toward the ex-spouse or situation
• Self-worth – internal sense of personal value
• Social self-worth – perceived value in the eyes of others
• Social trust – ability to trust others after relationship dissolution

Respondents indicate agreement on a Likert-type scale. High internal consistency has been reported, with Cronbach’s alpha values in the .93–.98 range across studies.^[3]

The FDAS has been validated in multiple cultural and linguistic settings, demonstrating its international relevance:

• **Kazakhstan (Russian sample, 2015):** Supported six-factor structure.^[4]
• **Iran (Persian version, 2017):** Reported reliability α ≈ .93, supporting validity.^[3]
• **Chile (2017):** Chilean Spanish short-form validated among divorced adults.^[5]
• **Japan (2020):** Japanese and short-form versions tested; six-domain structure upheld.^[6]
• **Portugal (2024):** Validation of FDAS-SF in emerging adults (579 participants).^[7]

The FDAS is used in:

• **Clinical practice** – Counselors and therapists employ it to assess recovery stages and guide interventions.^[1]
• **Group programs** – The Rebuilding Seminar and similar workshops use the FDAS at intake and completion to track progress.^[2]
• **Research** – Academic studies have used the FDAS as a primary measure for intervention outcomes, such as evaluating group therapy for divorced women.^[8]

The FDAS and Fisher’s Rebuilding framework have been recognized by professional publishers and organizations:

• **New Harbinger Publications** – maintains Fisher’s author profile and book editions.^[9]
• **Hachette UK** – lists Fisher as a contributor.^[10]
• **Divorce Seminar Center** – highlights FDAS as an assessment tool.^[11]

While widely applied in counseling contexts, the FDAS has limited visibility in mainstream psychology compared to standardized inventories such as the MMPI. Scholarly debate has largely centered on validation in diverse contexts rather than theoretical challenges. Some reviews note that research on long-term predictive validity is still limited.^[3]

• Bruce T. Fisher
• Divorce
• Psychometrics
• Psychological testing

• Official website