Utility of the Beck Depression Inventory with Clinic-Referred Adolescents

doi:10.1097/00004583-199003000-00018

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Volume 29, Issue 2, March 1990, Pages 278-282

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199003000-00018 Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

This study reports on the utilization of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents (DICA) in a sample of 100 clinic referred adolescents. Results indicate that the BDI efficiently identified and differentiated depressed from nondepressed adolescents. In addition, greater levels of depressive symptomatology and depressive disorder were found in girls. Reasons for these general sex differences are discussed, and it is concluded that a psychological explanation appears more promising than existing biological explanations.

REFERENCES (29)

E.J. Costello et al.
Scales to assess child and adolescent depression: Checklists, screens, and nets
J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry
(1988)
A.E. Kazdin
Assessment techniques for childhood depression
J. Amer. Acad. Child Psychiatry
(1981)
L.Y. Abramson et al.
Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation
J. Abnorm. Psychol.
(1978)
A.T. Beck et al.
An inventory for measuring depression
Arch. Gen. Psychiatry
(1961)
A.T. Beck
Measuring depression: The depression inventory
A.T. Beck et al.
Assessment of depression: The depression inventory
A.T. Beck et al.
Cognitive Theory of Depression.
(1979)
W. Dorus et al.
Depression, demographic dimensions, and drug abuse
Am. J. Psychiatry
(1980)
C.S. Dweck et al.
Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children
J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.
(1973)
C.S. Dweck et al.
Sex differences in learned helplessness: I. Differential debilitation with peer and adult evaluators
Developmental Psychology
(1976)

C.S. Dweck et al.

Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. The contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and III. An experimental analysis

Developmental Psychology

(1978)

J. Endicott et al.

A diagnostic interview: The schedule for affective disorder and schizophrenia

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

(1978)

M.E. Faulstich et al.

Assessment of depression in childhood and adolescence: An evaluation of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children

Am. J. Psychiatry

(1986)

B. Herjanic et al.

Are children reliable reporters?

J. Abnorm. Child Psychol.

(1975)

Cited by (55)

Family environment and problematic internet use among adolescents: The mediating roles of depression and Fear of Missing Out
2020, Computers in Human Behavior
A family environment, characterized by low expressiveness, low cohesion and intense conflicts is usually associated with problematic internet use (PIU) among adolescents. However, the mechanism that correlates family environment with PIU is still unclear. We propose that a negative family environment is associated with high adolescents' depression which, in turn, leads to Fear of Missing Out (FoMO); Finally, FoMO is associated with PIU, and time spent online. Eighty-five adolescents (aged 12–16) and their parents (total N = 170) participated in the study. Parents provided data on the family environment, and adolescents provided data on depression, FoMO and PIU. In addition, we monitored adolescents' smartphones for 14 days, gathering objective data to evaluate time and content online. Results supported out model, indicating that the effects of low family expressiveness and high conflicts on PIU and time spent online are mediated by depression and FoMO. Results suggest that positive family environment could decrease depressive symptoms and FoMO among adolescents, and hence, diminish PIU and time spent online.
Concurrent Treatment of Depression in Parents and Adolescents: A Case Example
2017, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice
Citation Excerpt :
Severity of each item is rated on a scale ranging from 0 to 3. Several studies have demonstrated the applicability of the BDI with adolescents (Kashani, Sherman, Parker, & Reid, 1990; Steer, Clark, Beck, & Ranieri, 1995; Strober, Green, & Carlson, 1981) as well as adults. This scale was administered to both parents and adolescents.
The detrimental influence of parent psychopathology—and depression, in particular—on adolescent mental health has been well documented. Routes of transmission include both direct and indirect factors, such as poor parent–adolescent communication, ineffective parenting practices, modeling ineffective coping skills, increased family discord and stress, inadvertent reinforcement of adolescent depressed mood and suicidal ideation and behavior, and decreased treatment adherence. This paper introduces a novel treatment to concurrently treat both a depressed adolescent as well as a depressed parent. This approach improves upon traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy by targeting relational factors of each adolescent–parent dyad while simultaneously addressing each individual’s depression. Principles of case conceptualization and treatment planning using this novel approach are illustrated using a case example.
Symptom screening scales for detecting major depressive disorder in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis of reliability, validity and diagnostic utility
2015, Journal of Affective Disorders
Citation Excerpt :
Five studies examined the NPV of the BDI, with values of 0.80 (Bennett et al., 1997), 0.95 (Dolle et al., 2012), 0.97 (Russell et al., 2012), 0.98 (Adewuya et al., 2007) 0.99 (Canals et al., 2001) and 0.99 (Roberts et al., 1991) (Fig. 3). Six studies (7 data points) used AUC analyses to examine the diagnostic accuracy of the BDI (Adewuya et al., 2007; Blom et al., 2010; Dolle et al., 2012; Kashani et al., 1990; Roberts et al., 1991; Russell et al., 2012), and overall accuracy was classified as ‘high’ (7 data points, n=3249, pooled estimate: 0.92, 95% CI: 0.81–1.00). Metaregression showed that the sample type (clinical vs. nonclinical; t(1, 6)=0.39, p=0.71, R2<0), sample age (child vs. adolescent; t(1, 6)=0.09, p=0.93, R2<0), cutpoint used (t(1, 6)=0.17, p=0.87, R2<0) and risk of bias quality score (t(1, 6)=1.44, p=0.19, R2=14.16%) did not significantly affect AUC values on the BDI.
Depression symptom screening scales are often used to determine a clinical diagnosis of major depressive disorder (MDD) in prevention research. The aim of this review is to systematically examine the reliability, validity and diagnostic utility of commonly used screening scales in depression prevention research among children and adolescents.
We conducted a systematic review of the electronic databases PsycINFO, PsycEXTRA and Medline examining the reliability, validity and diagnostic utility of four commonly used depression symptom rating scales among children and adolescents: the Children׳s Depression Inventory (CDI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS). We used univariate and bivariate random effects models to pool data and conducted metaregression to identify and explain causes of heterogeneity.
We identified 54 studies (66 data points, 34,542 participants). Across the four scales, internal reliability was ‘good’ (pooled estimate: 0.89, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.86–0.92). Sensitivity and specificity were ‘moderate’ (sensitivity: 0.80, 95% CI: 0.76–0.84; specificity: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.74–0.83). For studies that used a diagnostic interview to determine a diagnosis of MDD, positive predictive power for identifying true cases was mostly poor. Psychometric properties did not differ on the basis of study quality, sample type (clinical vs. nonclinical) or sample age (child vs. adolescent).
Some analyses may have been underpowered to identify conditions in which test performance may vary, due to low numbers of studies with adequate data.
Commonly used depression symptom rating scales are reliable measures of depressive symptoms among adolescents; however, using cutoff scores to indicate clinical levels of depression may result in many false positives.
Crocin, the main active saffron constituent, as an adjunctive treatment in major depressive disorder: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pilot clinical trial
2014, Journal of Affective Disorders
Citation Excerpt :
BDI is the most widely used self-rating scale and previous studies indicated its reliability and validity in patients with depression (Jolly et al., 1993). It is appropriate to all social levels and is neither age nor culture based (Kashani et al., 1990). It consists of 21 items of emotional, behavioral, and somatic symptoms.
Herbal remedies play an important role in treatment of psychiatric disorders. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of crocin, the main active constituent of saffron, as an adjunctive treatment in major depressive disorder (MDD).
This study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, pilot clinical trial. It was carried out during 4 weeks in two groups (placebo and treatment) on 40 MDD patients between 24 and 50 years old in Ibn-e-Sina psychiatric hospital, Mashhad, Iran, from March 2013 to December 2013. The crocin group (n=20) was given one selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) drug (fluoxetine 20 mg/day or sertraline 50 mg/day or citalopram 20 mg/day) plus crocin tablets (30 mg/day; 15 mg BID) and placebo group (n=20) was administered one SSRI (fluoxetine 20 mg/day or sertraline 50 mg/day or citalopram 20 mg/day) plus placebo (two placebo tablets per day) for 4 weeks. Both groups filled beck depression inventory (BDI), beck anxiety inventory (BAI), general health questionnaire (GHQ), the mood disorder questionnaire (MDQ), side effect evaluation questionnaire, and demographic questionnaire before and after one month intervention.
The crocin group showed significantly improved scores on BDI, BAI and GHQ compared to placebo group (P_value<0.0001). The averages of decrease in BDI, BAI and GHQ scores in placebo group were 6.15, 2.6 and 10.3 respectively, whereas the values in crocin group were 17.6, 12.7 and 17.2 after 4 weeks trial.
Poor patient compliance with medications and short trial period, small sample size and self-report assessments were the major limitations of this study.
These results demonstrated the effect of crocin in depression and could be administered in treatment of MDD patients.
Factors associated with substance use in adolescents with eating disorders
2014, Journal of Adolescent Health
Citation Excerpt :
Scores over 18 indicate moderate-to-severe depressive symptoms. It has been used in several adolescent ED populations, has good psychometric properties, and strongly correlates with clinical depression [24–26]. The Cronbach's alpha in this sample was .92.
To examine the prevalence and potential risk factors associated with substance use in adolescents with eating disorders (EDs).
This cross-sectional study included 290 adolescents, aged 12–18 years, who presented for an initial ED evaluation at The Eating Disorders Program at the University of Chicago Medicine between 2001 and 2012. Several factors including DSM-5 diagnosis, diagnostic scores, and demographic characteristics were examined. Multinomial logistic regression was used to test associations between several factors and patterns of drug use for alcohol, cannabis, tobacco, and any other substance.
Lifetime prevalence of any substance use was found to be 24.6% in those with anorexia nervosa, 48.7% in bulimia nervosa (BN), and 28.6% in ED not otherwise specified. Regular substance use (monthly, daily, and bingeing behaviors) or a substance use disorder was found in 27.9% of all patients. Older age was the only factor associated with regular use of any substance in the final multinomial model. Older age and non-white race was associated with greater alcohol and cannabis use. Although binge–purge frequency and bulimia nervosa diagnosis were associated with regular substance use in bivariate analyses, gender, race, and age were more robustly associated with substance use in the final multinomial models.
Co-morbid substance use in adolescents with EDs is an important issue. Interventions targeting high-risk groups reporting regular substance use or substance use disorders are needed.
Driven exercise among treatment-seeking youth with eating disorders
2011, Eating Behaviors
Citation Excerpt :
Scores over 18 indicate moderate to severe depressive symptoms. The BDI has good psychometric properties (Barrera & Garrison-Jones, 1988) and shows strong associations with clinical depression (Kashani, Sherman, Parker, & Reid, 1990). The BDI has also been utilized in multiple studies with pediatric eating disorder samples (Lock et al., 2010; Zaitsoff, Celio Doyle, Rienecke Hoste, & Le Grange, 2008).
This study evaluated the prevalence and clinical significance of driven exercise (DE) in treatment-seeking youth.
Participants were 380 consecutive referrals to a pediatric eating disorder program (90.8% female; M age = 14.9 ± 2.2). Spearman's rho correlations examined the relation between DE frequency, and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Eating Disorders Examination (EDE) Global Severity scores. ANOVA compared those reporting only DE, only vomiting, or both DE and vomiting on the aforementioned measures.
51.3% of participants (n = 193) reported DE in the past 3 months, with an average of 21.8 (SD = 32.6) episodes. Frequency of DE was related to EDE global severity score (Spearman's rho = .46; p < .001) and BDI Total Score (Spearman's rho = .33; p < .001). Participants reporting both vomiting and DE had the highest EDE global severity and BDI total scores.
DE is associated with greater eating disorder and depressive symptomatology, especially when paired with vomiting. The findings highlight the importance of assessing for DE in youth presenting for eating disorder treatment.

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Special SectionUtility of the Beck Depression Inventory with Clinic-Referred Adolescents

ABSTRACT

J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry

J. Amer. Acad. Child Psychiatry

Learned helplessness in humans: critique and reformulation

J. Abnorm. Psychol.

An inventory for measuring depression

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Measuring depression: The depression inventory

Assessment of depression: The depression inventory

Cognitive Theory of Depression.

Depression, demographic dimensions, and drug abuse

Am. J. Psychiatry

Learned helplessness and reinforcement responsibility in children

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

Sex differences in learned helplessness: I. Differential debilitation with peer and adult evaluators

Developmental Psychology

Sex differences in learned helplessness: II. The contingencies of evaluative feedback in the classroom and III. An experimental analysis

Developmental Psychology

A diagnostic interview: The schedule for affective disorder and schizophrenia

Arch. Gen. Psychiatry

Assessment of depression in childhood and adolescence: An evaluation of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for Children

Am. J. Psychiatry

Are children reliable reporters?

J. Abnorm. Child Psychol.

Special Section
Utility of the Beck Depression Inventory with Clinic-Referred Adolescents