DISTRESS AND DIVORCE: ESTABLISHING CUTOFF SCORES FOR THE MARITAL STATUS INVENTORY Jason B. Whiting D. Russell Crane ABSTRACT: This study was designed to identify Marital Status Inven- tory (MSI) scores that could be used as cutoff points for degrees of marital distress. Cutoff scores are useful in clinical work as a way to estimate degrees of marital distress, differentiate couples for treat- ments, and to provide uniformity across studies. Subjects consisted of 474 couples requesting marital therapy at a university-based clinic. Based on their individual Marital Adjustment Test (MAT) scores, par- ticipants were placed in severely distressed, moderately distressed, and non-distressed groups. Using a discriminant analysis, MSI scores of 4 for husbands and 5 for wives were found to be useful cutoff points for severe distress. KEY WORDS: divorce; distress; Marital Status Inventory; cutoff scores. The profession of marriage and family therapy has been encour- aged to better incorporate a scientist-practitioner model of practice (Crane, Wampler, Sprenkle, Sandberg, & Hovestadt, 2002). This in- cludes becoming more rigorous in using research to inform therapy. One way to do this is to evaluate assessment instruments to determine their usefulness and rigor. In marital therapy assessment instruments are frequently used in clinical and research settings to gain a “snapshot” of clients. Valid assessment instruments help family therapy research- ers and practitioners secure public recognition and grant support, and Jason B. Whiting, PhD, is Assistant Professor and Director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY (jwhit6@uky.edu). D. Russell Crane, PhD, Professor, Marriage and Family Therapy Graduate Programs, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT (russ-crane@byu.edu). Reprint requests should be sent to the first author. Contemporary Family Therapy 25(2), June 2003  2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 195