Abstract

VILLALOBOS-GALVIS, FREDY HERNÁN  and  ORTIZ-DELGADO, LEONIDAS. Psychometric characteristics of the CES-D scale in adolescents of San Juan de Pasto (Colombia). Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2012, vol.30, n.2, pp.328-340. ISSN 1794-4724.

The purpose of this study was to explore the psychometric characteristics of the CES-D scale in a sample of adolesents attending high school in San Juan de Pasto (Colombia). An instrumental study was developed with the participation of 790 students who belonged to 6 educational institutions of the city (4 public and 2 private), with an average age of 13.8 years. It was found in this studythat the CES-D scale has a bifactor structure, in which the items were grouped in a depression factor (the original depressed mood, somatic and social scales were combined in that factor), while the items of well-being were maintained like in the source structure. The total scale showed an internal consistency of 0.89, while the factors had Cronbach's Alpha indexes of 0.9 (Depression) and 0.75 (Well-being). Finally, evidence of construct validity was found since significant positive relationships with suicide ideation and hopelessness scales, and significant negative relationships with social support and self-esteem were demonstrated. Descriptive statistics about total and factor scores were proposed. These results suggest that this instrument could be used to assess Colombian adolescent population.

Keywords : depression; validity; factor analysis; reliability; adolescents.

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