Abstract
The present study was undertaken to examine some of the psychometric properties of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI), a self-report inventory devised by Kovacs and Beck (1977) to measure depression in children and adolescents. Normative and reliability data were obtained from three independent samples taken from eight public schools in central Pennsylvania. Age- and gender-related differences in reported characteristics of depression were also investigated. The subjects were 594 males and 658 females whose ages ranged from 8 to 16 years and whose combined mean age was 11.67 years (SD=1.91). The CDI was group-administered to all 1,252 subjects; 155 fifth-grade subjects (77 males and 78 females) were retested after 3 weeks, and 107 seventh- and eight-grade subjects (45 males and 62 females) were retested after 1 year. The distribution statistics for the combined samples yielded an overall CDI mean of 9.09, a standard deviation of 7.04, and a cutoff score of 19 for the upper 10% of the distribution. Reliability assessed through coefficient alpha, item-total score product-moment correlations, and test-retest coefficients proved acceptable. Gender differences were obtained for several item-total score correlations and for test-retest reliability of CDI scores.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Beck, A., Ward, C., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression.Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Cantwell, D. P., & Carlson, G. (1979). Problems and prospects in the study of childhood depression.Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 167, 522–529.
Carlson, G. A., & Cantwell, D. P. (1979). A survey of depressive symptoms in a child and adolescent psychiatric population.Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 18, 587–599.
Carlson, G. A., & Cantwell, D. P. (1980a). A survey of depressive symptoms, syndrome and disorder in a child psychiatric population.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 21, 19–25.
Carlson, G. A., & Cantwell, D. P. (1980b). Unmasking masked depression in children and adolescents.American Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 445–449.
Craighead, W. E., Meyers, A. W., Craighead, L. W., & McHale, S. M. (1983). Issues in cognitive-behavior therapy with children. In M. Rosenbaum, C. M. Franks, & Y. Jaffe (Eds.),Perspectives on behavior therapy in the eighties (pp. 234–261). New York: Springer.
Craighead, W. E., Smucker, M. R., & Duchnowski, A. (1981, August).Childhood and adolescent depression and attributional style. Paper presented at the meetings of the American Psychological Association, Los Angeles.
Cytryn, L., & McKnew, D. H. (1974). Factors influencing the changing clinical expression of the depressive process in children.American Journal of Psychiatry, 131, 879–881.
Frommer, E. (1968). Depressive illness in childhood.British Journal of Psychiatry, Special Publication No. 2, 117–136.
Green, B. J. (1980).Depression in early adolescence: An exploratory investigation of its frequency, intensity, and correlates. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Pennsylvania State University.
Kashani, J. H., Husain, A., Shekim, W. O., Hodges, K. K., Cytryn, L., & McKnew, D. H. (1981). Current perspectives on childhood depression: An overview.American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 143–153.
Kazdin, A. E. (1981). Assessment techniques for childhood depression: A critical appraisal.Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 20, 358–375.
Kazdin, A. E., & Petti, T. A. (1982). Self-report and interview measure of childhood and adolescent depression.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23, 437–457.
Kovacs, M. (1980/1981). Rating scales to assess depression in school-aged children.Acta Paedopsychiatria, 46, 305–315.
Kovacs, M. (1983, April).The Children's Depression Inventory: A self-rating depression scale for school-aged youngsters. Unpublished manuscript. (Available from Maria Kovacs, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, 3811 O'Hara Street, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15261).
Kovacs, M., & Beck, A. T. (1977). An empirical-clinical approach toward a definition of childhood depression. In J. G. Schulterbrandt & A. Raskin (Eds.),Depression in childhood: Diagnosis, treatment, and conceptual models (pp. 1–25). New York: Raven Press.
Kovacs, M., Feinberg, T. L., Crouse-Novak, M. A., Paulauskas, S. L., & Finkelstein, R. (1984). Depressive disorders in childhood: I. A longitudinal prospective study of characteristics and recovery,Archives of General Psychiatry, 41, 229–237.
Lefkowitz, M., & Burton, N. (1978). Childhood depression: A critique of the concept.Psychological Bulletin, 85, 716–726.
Lesse, S. (1977). Masked depression and depressive equivalents.Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 13, 68–70.
Malmquist, C. P. (1975). Depression in childhood. In F. F. Flach & S. C. Draghi (Eds.),The nature and treatment of depression. New York: Wiley.
Puig-Antich, J., & Gittelman, R. (1982). Depression in childhood and adolescence. In E. S. Paykel,Handbook of affective disorders (pp. 379–392). New York: Guilford Press.
Rutter, M., Graham, P., Chadwick, O., & Yule, W. (1976). Adolescent turmoil—fact or fiction?Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 17, 35–56.
Toolan, J. M. (1962). Depression in children and adolescents.American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 32, 404–414.
Weinberg, W. A., Rutman, J., Sullivan, L., Penick, E. C., & Deitz, S. G..(1973). Depression in children referred to an educational diagnostic center: Diagnosis and treatment.Journal of Pediatrics, 83, 1065–1072.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smucker, M.R., Craighead, W.E., Craighead, L.W. et al. Normative and reliability data for the children's depression inventory. J Abnorm Child Psychol 14, 25–39 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917219
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00917219