The Depressive Tendency Questionnaire for Chinese Middle School Students: Development and Initial Validation

Figures & data

Table 1 Demographic Characteristics of Study Participants

	Characteristics	Categories	N	%
Sample 1 (N=865)	Grade	7th	81	9.36
		8th	157	18.15
		9th	154	17.80
		10th	201	23.24
		11th	172	19.88
		12th	100	11.56
	Gender	Male	454	52.49
		Female	398	46.01
		Missing value	13	1.50
Sample 2 (N=1205)	Grade	7th	272	22.57
		8th	272	22.57
		9th	270	22.41
		10th	235	19.50
		11th	156	12.95
	Gender	Male	544	45.15
		Female	658	54.61
		Missing value	3	0.24
Sample 3 (N=213)	Grade	7th	51	23.94
		8th	48	22.54
		10th	51	23.94
		11th	63	29.58
	Gender	Male	75	35.21
		Female	138	64.79

Figure 1 Parallel analysis plot.

Table 2 Exploratory Factor Analysis Results of Depressive Tendency

Item	Factor 1	Factor 2	Factor 3	Factor 4	Commonality
6	0.790				0.659
2	0.784				0.482
5	0.771				0.449
14	0.721				0.655
27	0.620				0.556
33	0.598				0.560
41	0.559				0.517
9	0.549				0.492
67		0.937			0.605
70		0.819			0.573
73		0.722			0.606
76		0.629			0.536
78		0.626			0.427
11		0.606			0.431
75		0.593			0.670
58		0.575			0.341
39			0.871		0.612
60			0.805		0.560
63			0.739		0.486
10			0.702		0.488
31			0.598		0.370
40			0.596		0.431
57			0.491		0.461
23			0.479		0.548
24				0.841	0.608
16				0.764	0.531
20				0.763	0.599
68				0.615	0.428
74				0.611	0.482
32				0.530	0.402
Eigenvalue	10.300	1.960	1.873	1.434
Variance explained (%)	34.332	6.533	6.243	4.780
Cumulative variance explained (%)	34.513	40.865	47.108	51.888

Note: Items with factor loading below 0.40 are not listed.

Table 3 Results of the Fit Indicators for the Confirmatory Factor Analysis

Model	χ^2	df	χ^2/df	CFI	TLI	RMSEA	90% CI	SRMR
Four-factor model	1312.359	397	3.306	0.937	0.931	0.044	[0.041, 0.046]	0.040
Three-factor model	1612.605	400	4.032	0.916	0.909	0.050	[0.048, 0.053]	0.043
Two-factor model	2061.281	402	5.128	0.885	0.876	0.059	[0.056, 0.061]	0.048
One-factor model	2789.711	403	6.922	0.835	0.822	0.070	[0.068, 0.073]	0.061

Table 4 Results of Reliability Tests for the Depressive Tendency Questionnaire

	Cronbach’s α	Split-half Coefficient	Test-Retest
Negative self	0.906	0.888	0.825***
Cognitive function	0.891	0.860	0.801***
Personal reserve	0.876	0.853	0.801***
Social support	0.829	0.768	0.708***
Total score	0.952	0.918	0.851***

Note: ***p<0.001.

Table 5 Analysis of Heterotrait-Monotrait Ratio of Correlations (HTMT) for Discriminant Validity

HTMT	Negative Self	Cognitive Function	Personal Reserve	Social Support
Negative self	—
Cognitive function	0.813	—
Personal reserve	0.843	0.776	—
Social support	0.655	0.607	0.609	—

Table 6 Results of Criteria Correlation Analysis

	Negative Self	Cognitive Function	Personal Reserve	Social Support	Total Score
Depressed affect	0.846***	0.649***	0.703***	0.527***	0.809***
Positive affect	0.616***	0.551***	0.575***	0.557***	0.671***
Somatic and retarded activity	0.732***	0.731***	0.720***	0.485***	0.793***
Interpersonal	0.630***	0.476***	0.617***	0.477***	0.647***
Total CES-D	0.858***	0.729***	0.775***	0.599***	0.875***

Note: ***p<0.001.

Abbreviation: CES-D, the Centre for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale.

Table 7 Measurement Invariance of Depressive Tendency Across Gender and Grade

	Model	χ^2	df	CFI	TLI	RMESA [90% CI]	ΔCFI	ΔTLI	ΔRMESA
Gender	M1	1749.179	794	0.935	0.928	0.045 [0.042, 0.048]
	M2	1817.237	820	0.932	0.928	0.045 [0.042, 0.048]	0.003	0.000	0.000
	M3	1934.867	846	0.926	0.923	0.046 [0.044, 0.049]	0.006	0.005	−0.001
Grade	M1	3229.244	1985	0.921	0.914	0.051 [0.048, 0.054]
	M2	3404.806	2089	0.917	0.913	0.051 [0.048, 0.054]	0.004	0.001	0.000
	M3	3590.610	2193	0.912	0.912	0.052 [0.048, 0.055]	0.005	0.001	−0.001

Note: M1=Configural Invariance model; M2=Metric Invariance model; M3=Scalar Invariance model.