Assessing Defense Styles: Factor Structure and Psychometric Properties of the New Defense Style Questionnaire 60 (DSQ-60)

The Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) has undergone numerous revisions in an effort to improve reliability and validity. More recently, another version, the DSQ-60, was designed to be congruent with the DSM-IV. The present study examined the underlying structure of the DSQ-60 using both exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures. The scale was administered to a group of students attending an English-speaking university (n= 305) and a French-speaking university (n= 212). Three factors (image distorting, affect regulating, and adaptive) accounted for 47.93% of the variance. Confirmatory factor analysis corroborated a three factor model. A new factor reflecting defensive functioning in healthy individuals was found. Cronbach’s alpha for the three styles was .64, .72, and .61, respectively. Results are compared with prior research on the DSQ and suggest that the psychometric properties of the scale remain to be improved before broad use is warranted.