Screening for depressive symptoms in adolescents at school: New validity evidences on the short form of the Reynolds Depression Scale

Abstract

The main purpose of the present study was to assess the depressive symptomatology and to gather new validity evidences of the Reynolds Depression Scale-Short form (RADS-SF) in a representative sample of youths. The sample consisted of 2914 adolescents with a mean age of 15.85 years (SD = 1.68). We calculated the descriptive statistics and internal consistency of the RADS-SF scores. Also, confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) at the item level and successive multigroup CFAs to test measurement invariance, were conducted. Latent mean differences across gender and educational level groups were estimated, and finally, we studied the sources of validity evidences with other external variables. The level of internal consistency of the RADS-SF Total score by means of Ordinal alpha was .89. Results from CFAs showed that the one-dimensional model displayed appropriate goodness of-fit indices with CFI value over .95, and RMSEA value under .08. In addition, the results support the strong measurement invariance of the RADS-SF scores across gender and age. When latent means were compared, statistically significant differences were found by gender and age. Females scored 0.347 over than males in Depression latent variable, whereas older adolescents scored 0.111 higher than the younger group. In addition, the RADS-SF score was associated with the RADS scores. The results suggest that the RADS-SF could be used as an efficient screening test to assess self-reported depressive symptoms in adolescents from the general population.

Capturing the Severity and Impairment Associated With Depression: The Overall Depression Severity and Impairment Scale (ODSIS) Validation in a Spanish Clinical Sample

“…It is among the most common reasons for consulting a general practitioner (3–5). This happens not only in adult's population, but also among young people the major depressive disorder (MDD) is considered one of the leading causes of disability (6–9). In Spain, depression is the most pervasive mental disorder, with a 12-month prevalence estimated at 3.9%, and a lifetime prevalence estimated at 10.5% (6).…”

“…This happens not only in adult's population, but also among young people the major depressive disorder (MDD) is considered one of the leading causes of disability (6–9). In Spain, depression is the most pervasive mental disorder, with a 12-month prevalence estimated at 3.9%, and a lifetime prevalence estimated at 10.5% (6). To the epidemiological magnitude of this disease, it is important to add its special tendency toward chronicity (7) and its high rate of comorbidity (10), especially with anxiety disorders (11).…”

“…Furthermore, regarding the functioning domains, depressive symptoms have stronger associations with role limitations due to vitality, mental health, physical and emotional, and social functioning problems than anxiety symptoms (2). In view of these data, there is a need to develop screening strategies for the emotional and behavioral symptoms related to MDD (6, 13). Furthermore, because depressive symptoms are accompanied by significant distress and impairment, it is important to capture the severity of the impairment and assess it in research and clinical settings.…”

Measurement Invariance of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 Across Gender in a Sample of Chinese University Students

“…However, a prerequisite for use of the same psychological scale score for different groups is cross-group measurement invariance ( Reise et al, 1993 ). Other scales that measure depression and anxiety (e.g., Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II) have been proven to have reliable measurement invariance in multiple studies ( Fonseca-Pedrero et al, 2010 ; Wu and Huang, 2014 ). Few studies have tested the measurement invariance of the DASS in terms of gender.…”

Estructura interna del Cuestionario de Evaluación de Violencia Escolar Infantil y Primaria en un entorno violento de México

“…Ya que también existe un interés por la detección de trastornos emocionales o problemas de comportamiento en niños y adolescentes que ha aumentado en las úl mas dos décadas, mismos que se han conver do en una de las principales causas de discapacidad en la adolescencia (Ortuño-Sierra et al, 2017). La detección temprana, la iden ficación y el tratamiento de los individuos en riesgo pueden retrasar o prevenir el inicio del desenlace clínico; sin embargo, antes de la iden ficación temprana y los esfuerzos de prevención, necesitamos herramientas de evaluación breves, validadas y psicométrica-mente sólidas de todos aquellos factores predisponentes y desencadenantes de escenarios clínicos psicopatológicos (Ortuño-Sierra, Chocarro, Fonseca-Pedrero, Ortuño-Sierra, Fonseca-Pedrero, Paino, Sastre i Riba & Muñiz, 2015).…”