The DQ is a 43-item primarily Likert-type scale containing three subscales designed to measure adults' perceptions of past physical punishment (PP), evaluations of past physical punishment (EPP), and current attitudes toward physical punishment (CA).

This readjustment scale acknowledges the role of psychosocial life events in the causation of disease. The scale assigns numerical values to stressful life events which are then added up and compared against a table containing certain illnesses related to stress.