Psychometric Properties of the Beck Depression Inventory–II in Low-Income, African American Suicide Attempters

Abstract

Cross-cultural examinations of the validity and reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory–II (Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996) is essential for its use in assessment and monitoring of the effectiveness of suicide interventions across racial groups. We tested the fit of a second-order, two-factor model and the internal reliability of the BDI–II in a sample of 133 African Americans with a recent history of suicide attempts. Additionally, we examined the convergent validity with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Reynolds & Koback, 1995). The results indicate that the BDI–II is a reliable and valid measure of depressive symptoms for African American suicide attempters.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported in part by funds from the National Institute of Mental Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Resources awarded (K01–MH65499) to Dr. Joe. Additional support was provided by a grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (P20–MH-071905-02) to Dr. Beck. This article benefits greatly from the perceptive comments of Robert Steers.

Notes

^a Corrected item-total correlations are estimated among the items in each first-order factor.

^b Regression path constrained at 1.000; therefore, no standard error reported.