Comprehensive investigation of factor structure and gender equivalence of the Beck Depression Inventory-II among nonclinical adolescents

Abstract

The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) is a tool widely used to rate the severity of depressive symptoms. Regarding the factor validity of the BDI-II in adolescents, the two-factor solution describing “cognitive” and “somatic-affective” dimensions has been shown to be the most reported. Recently, bifactor model analysis has become popular to describe psychological constructs such as depression. Furthermore, data related to measurement invariance across gender is limited. This study aimed to examine plausible factor structures and gender equivalence of the BDI-II in a Brazilian sample of nonclinical adolescents (N = 1,184, aged 13–18 years, 59.1% females). Cross-validation of the BDI-II was performed through exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Measurement invariance was evaluated using multigroup-CFA (MG-CFA). EFA suggested an oblique two-factor model depicting “affective-cognitive” and “somatic" dimensions. Simple structure and bifactor models from literature, as well as the estimated EFA model and its corresponding bifactor model were examined. All factor models revealed adequate and similar fitness, well-defined factors, and good reliability. The goodness-of-fit of bifactor models was slightly superior when compared to simple structure models. Bifactor analyses indicated a robust general factor with low reliable variance in total scores attributed to multidimensionality caused by the group factors in bifactor models. MG-CFA supported invariance across gender, confirming that the same BDI-II construct could be applied to both female and male adolescents. This study provides evidence that the BDI-II could be used by researchers and clinicians as a unidimensional measure of depressive symptoms in the adolescent population.