Factor analysis of the Children's Depression Inventory in a community sample.

Abstract

The factor structure of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; M. Kovacs, 1992) was evaluated in a large community sample of 1,777 children and 924 adolescents. There were 5 first-order factors (Externalizing, Dysphoria, Self-Deprecation, School Problems, and Social Problems) for the child group; the adolescent group yielded the same 5 factors plus a 6th factor (Biological Dysregulation).Confirmatory factor analyses supported the stability and replicability of the obtained factor structures.Both samples yielded 2 higher order factors-Internalizing and Externalizing. The factors were compared with previous CDI factors identified for clinical (B. Weiss et al., 1991) and community (M. Kovacs, 1992) samples. Other notable findings included more boys reporting high scores (17 and above) on the CDI among the child sample, whereas, among adolescents more girls reported high scores (17 and above) on the total CDI as well as higher scores on the biological dysregulation factor.It is now widely accepted that Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exists among children and adolescents; indeed, in recent years the prevalence of MDD among young people appears to have been increasing (Kessler et al., 1994;Lewinsohn, Hops, Roberts, Seeley, & Andrews, 1993). MDD occurs equally among boys and girls until puberty, at which time the incidence of MDD increases dramatically for girls. Following the onset of puberty, more than twice as many girls as boys develop MDDa gender ratio that continues throughout adulthood (American Psychiatric Association, 1994).The increased interest in MDD and related disorders among children and adolescents has catalyzed the development of new and improved assessment instruments. Several structured interviews have been developed to provide the information necessary

Developmental Trajectories of Perceived Friendship Intimacy, Constructive Problem Solving, and Depression from Early to Late Adolescence

“…Depression Depression was assesed with the revised likertscale version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI; Craighead et al 1998;CDI;Kovacs 1992). This questionnaire contains 27 items.…”

“…A mean score was computed to create a depression score. The likert-scale version of the CDI is a well-established instrument for measuring depression in non-clinical samples of children and adolescents (Craighead et al 1998;Kovacs 1992). Cronbach's alphas of this measure ranged from 0.89 to 0.93 from Wave 1 to Wave 5.…”

Co‐occurrence of depression and delinquency in personality types

“…This scale has demonstrated convergent and discriminant validity, good internal consistency and adequate test-retest reliability in previous studies (e.g. Craighead, Smucker, Craighead, & Ilardi, 1998;Hodges, 1990). The CDI consists of 27 items; sample questions include 'I'm sad all the time', 'It will never end right for me' and 'I do everything wrong'.…”

Adequate Screening of Youngsters for Depressive Characteristics

“…The item scores are combined into a total depression score. As already mentioned, the questionnaire has relatively high levels of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and predictive, convergent, and construct validity, especially in nonclinical populations (Craighead et al, 1998;Timbremont & Braet, 2002 The questionnaire can be interpreted by means of cut-off scores based on the raw total score. A cut-off score of 13 minimises false negatives and is recommended in a clinical sample; a higher cut-off score of 19 minimises false positives and can be used in a nonclinical sample (Kovacs, 1992).…”