The Extreme Demand Avoidance Questionnaire (EDAq)

Description:

The ‘Extreme Demand Avoidance Questionnaire’ (EDA-Q) was developed to measure behaviours reported in clinical accounts of extreme/‘pathological’ demand avoidance (PDA). The questionnaire allowed these traits to be measured consistently for research purposes. The EDA-Q should not be considered a diagnostic test.

In the study of parent-reported behaviours in children and adolescents, for children aged 5 to 11 a score of 50 and over, and for children aged 12 to 17 a score of 45 and over, indicated an elevated risk of parents reporting that the child had been clinically identified as having a profile resembling PDA.   However a lower score would not necessarily preclude PDA from being a factor, especially when presentations may be more subtle (e.g. where aggression may be less of a factor or where avoidant traits may be less ‘overt’). PDA is dimensional (meaning that it impacts different people in different ways and in different environments) so the EDA-Q score should be interpreted dimensionally rather than as a formal 'cut off' point.

 

 

For further information

A description of how the measure was developed and the preliminary validation of it can be found here.

Please also see the May 2021 adaptation of the EDA-Q called the EDA-8. It is a refined and simplified scale that benefits from the lack of a cut-off score: Extreme Demand Avoidance in Children: Refinement of a Caregiver-Report Measure.