Psychometric characteristics of the CES-D scale in adolescents of San Juan de Pasto (Colombia)

Abstract

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.