Psychometric Properties of the Beck Depression Inventory–II in Low-Income, African American Suicide Attempters

Abstract

Cross-cultural examinations of the validity and reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996) is essential for its use in assessment and monitoring of the effectiveness of suicide interventions across racial groups. We tested the fit of a second-order, two-factor model and the internal reliability of the BDI-II in a sample of 133 African Americans with a recent history of suicide attempts. Additionally, we examined the convergent validity with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Reynolds & Koback, 1995). The results indicate that the BDI-II is a reliable and valid measure of depressive symptoms for African American suicide attempters.The Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996) is one of the most commonly used instruments in research and practice to measure the presence and severity of depression and has been widely used in suicide prevention research (Brown, 2001). Suicide has increased among ethnic minorities, and 60% of suicides suffer from depression (Goldsmith, Pellmar, Kleinman, & Bunney, 2002). Therefore, accurate assessment of depression among ethnic minorities, especially in individuals with a history of suicide behavior, will be an important task. Comparative studies have raised questions about the validity of measures used to assess depression (Bryne, Stewart, & Lee, 2004). Concurrently, in the past decade, research has spawned interest in ethnic, racial, and cultural differences in depression, as several studies have pointed to the possibility that the characteristics of depression as measured by the BDI-II may differ across cultural groups (Dutton et al., 2004;Paniagua, 2000).Most participants in previous BDI-II studies have been White and middle-class (Grothe et al., 2005). Only one study examined the BDI-II factor structure in an African American sample. Among low-income, African American medical outpatients (N = 220), Grothe et al. (2005) confirmed fit of a second-order, two-factor structure. However, the generalizability of these results is limited to medical patients. Prior research has suggested that the experiences of depression among medically ill patients are qualitatively different from psychiatric patients (Morley, Williams, & Black, 2002). For instance, medically ill patients are more likely to endorse somatic items and less likely to endorse affective items, and their depression is not characterized by a depreciating view of self, key symptoms among psychiatric patients (Morley et al., 2002). Therefore, in this study, we sought to replicate and extend the work begun by NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author ManuscriptGrothe et al. by examining the psychometric properties of the BDI-II in a psychiatric sample of African American participants who recently attempted suicide. In addition, we assessed the internal reliability and convergent validity of the BDI-II. Method SampleThe sample was collected as a part of a randomized clinical trial examining the effectiveness of cognitive ...

Passive Suicidal Ideation

“…Scores of 20 to 28 indicate moderate depression, and scores of 29 to 63 indicate severe depression . High internal consistency with coefficient alphas of .90 and above has been demonstrated among psychiatric outpatients (Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996) and recent suicide attempters (Joe, Woolley, Brown, Ghahramanlou-Holloway, & Beck, 2008). The present study found comparable internal consistency (a ¼ .90).…”

El Inventario de Depresión de Beck: Su validez en población adolescente

“…Por otra parte, si bien el BDI-II se presenta como una versión más actualizada del BDI-IA, la cual integra nueve, en vez de siete, de los síntomas enlistados como criterios diagnósticos en el DSM-IV (APA, 1995) para la depresión, y amplía su tiempo de evaluación a las dos últimas semanas, su composición factorial y propiedades psicométricas no difieren en gran medida de las informadas para el BDI-IA (Joe, Woolley, Brown, Ghahramanlou-Holloway & Beck, 2008), cargando también para un factor somático y un factor cognitivo-afectivo, en adolescentes y adultos.…”

Social Determinants of Adolescent Depression: An Examination of Racial Differences

“…Adolescent depression occurs within various developmental, social, economic, and cultural contexts, which is often manifested by known depressive symptoms of fatigue, loss of interest in daily activities, sad moods, and sleep disturbances. It has also been noted that acts of anger, frustration, and violence among minority adolescents, often categorized as behavioral problems, have also been linked with depression, especially among males (Fitzpatrick, Dulin, & Piko, 2010;Joe, Woolley, Brown, Ghahramanlou-Holloway, & Beck, 2008;Rosenbloom & Way, 2004). Reports on adolescent depression suggest a general trend of higher rates of depression among minority adolescents and conclude that minority adolescents are a high-risk group for poor mental health outcomes (Eaton et al, 2008;U.S.…”