Validity and reliability of the CES-D in children and early adolescents

The CES-D (Center for Epidemiological Study Depression Scale) is an instrument designed to measure the current level of depressive symptomatology in English speaking adults from the general population, which has been used in numerous studies in the last decades. The instrument has been adapted for use in the Spanish speaking population and with children and adolescents without a rigorous research into its psychometric viability for these populations. The present study provides normative, validity, and reliability data on the CES-D for 1,167 pre and post-pubertal Mexican children and adolescents from 9 to 14 years of age. The sample was divided by sex, pubertal status, and socioeconomic level (type of school) for greater understanding of the functioning of the CES-D within these groups. Higher scores were found for those from public schools than those from private schools, and for postmenearchal girls than for premenearchal girls and for all the boys both pre and post-pubertal. The internal consistency of the CES-D was satisfactory. The comparison between a general school population and a group of psychiatric youth supports the concurrent validity of the instrument. Comparisons between the factor structures provide additional support of the validity and reliability of the scale despite differences by type of school and pubertal status. The findings suggest that the CES-D is a valid and reliable instrument for the pre and postpubertal Mexican population, although proper interpretation requieres taking into account the specific norms for each population.