The Psychometric Characteristics of the Hamilton Depression Inventory

Abstract

In this study, the psychometric properties of the Hamilton Depression Inventory (HDI; Reynolds & Kobak, 1995a) were examined in a sample of 249 undergraduate participants. The HDI exhibited high internal consistency and support for its construct validity was demonstrated by the HDI's patterns of correlations with other measures of depression, anxiety, and depression-relevant cognition. Factor analyses of the full (23-item) and 17-item versions of the HDI each yielded 4 factors, which accounted for 49% and 53% of the variance in participants' responses, respectively. The utility of the HDI's use of multiple-weighted subitems was also assessed by comparing a less complicated scoring system to the standard scoring format. The standard HDI added significantly to the prediction of criterion indexes after controlling for the variance accounted for by the "simplified" HDI. Moreover, the operating characteristics of the standard HDI outperformed the simplified HDI in the prediction of the Beck Depression Inventory-II (Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) classification. The results provide strong support for the HDI as a reliable and valid instrument for the assessment of depressive severity.