A bifactor representation of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for children: gender and age invariance and implications for adolescents’ social and academic adjustment

Abstract

Background The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) is a widely used scale for screening depressive symptoms in children and adolescents. This study aims to uncover the optimal factor structure of the DES-DC and presents an alternate conceptualization of adolescent depression by estimating bifactor models and several competing models using a sample of Chinese adolescents. Methods The participants were 533 adolescents (49.7% boys, 49.7% girls, 3 participants did not report) between 12 and 18 years of age attending public secondary schools in the middle part of mainland China. Data were collected in classrooms using a questionnaire survey. A structural equation modeling approach was used to estimate and compare a series of competing models for the DES-DC. Results A Bifactor exploratory structural equation model (Bi-ESEM) with the best model fit was retained for representing the current data. Tests of measurement invariance demonstrated strict measurement equivalence across gender and age. No gender and age differences have been found in the general depression factor. Findings provided evidence for the composite reliability and construct validity of DES-DC. Depressive symptoms positively related to the Big Five trait neuroticism, negative emotions, loneliness, social anxious behaviors, and disruptive behaviors during school and negatively related to agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion, physical health status, school connectedness, and academic self-efficacy. Conclusions This study provides support for the one general factor construct of the CES-DC and the continuum concept structure of adolescent depression. Moreover, this research offers empirical evidence for comparing depression symptoms among adolescent populations with diverse genders and age groups. Additionally, the findings replicate and expand upon the implications of depressive symptoms on adolescents’ traits, well-being, social-relational adjustment, and academic adaptation.

Análise psicométrica de duas versões do Big Five Inventory -15 em estudantes universitários chilenos: estrutura interna, invariância de medição e associação com bem-estar subjetivo

“…Conforme con lo expuesto, la evaluación de la personalidad es relevante en el ámbito universitario tanto para labores de investigación como para contextos aplicados, ya sea por su relevancia evolutiva en cuanto a sus diferencias según sexo o edad (e.g., Zhang et al, 2024;Zhao et al, 2024), o por su asociación con variables relevantes como el rendimiento académico (responsabilidad; Vedel, 2014), la motivación académica (neuroticismo y responsabilidad; McGeown et al, 2014), la procrastinación (neuroticismo y apertura; Ocansey et al, 2020), la autorregulación motivacional (responsabilidad; Ljubin-Golub et al, 2019), deshonestidad académica (responsabilidad y amabilidad; Giluk & Postlethwaite, 2015), autoeficacia académica (responsabilidad y apertura; McIIloy et al, 2015), apoyo social (extraversión; Barańczuk, 2019), burnout académico (neuroticismo; Prada-Chapoñan et al, 2020;amabilidad y neuroticismo;Araújo, 2024), o el bienestar subjetivo (Nunes et al, 2009).…”