2016 · Study · English

The Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale: Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity

Rhew, I. C., Monahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D.

Rhew, I. C., Monahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2016). The Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale: Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity. Journal of Community Psychology, 44(3), 391–398. doi.org/10.1002/jcop.21766

Summary

Validation study in the Journal of Community Psychology of the four-item Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale (CTC-BDS), designed for youth surveys that must also cover substance use, delinquency and risk factors and therefore have little room for a full depression measure. Data come from 3,939 adolescents in the Community Youth Development Study, the CTC trial in 24 US towns. The nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) served as the criterion for major depressive disorder. At a cut-point of 6, sensitivity and specificity of the CTC-BDS both exceeded .8, and the area under the ROC curve was .91. The authors conclude that the scale is short enough to fit into a community survey and accurate enough to monitor levels of youth depression over time. Relevant for European sites that want to add a mental-health indicator to their CTC youth survey without lengthening it.