Differentiation of Self Inventory

Differentiation of self is the cornerstone of Bowen's (1978) theory, and is commonly assessed by the Differentiation of Self Inventory-Revised (DSI-R; Skowron & Schmitt, 2003Skowron, E. A., & Schmitt, T. A. (2003). Assessing interpersonal fusion: Reliability and validity of a new DSI Fusion with Others Subscale. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 29, 209–222. doi:10.1111/j.1752-0606.2003.tb01201.x). To establish the cross-cultural validity of the theory and the DSI-R, the authors sampled 315 Asian-American bicultural adults. A confirmatory factor analysis showed that the original four-factor solution did not provide an adequate fit to the current data. Subsequently, an exploratory factor analysis suggested a 34- item, three-factor model, and the new factor structure yielded strong reliability coefficients. Moreover, regression analyses demonstrated that increased levels of differentiation significantly correlated with fewer symptoms of generalized anxiety.