Confirmatory factor analysis of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression Scale in Black and White dementia caregivers

Abstract

Objectives: In order to better understand if measurement problems underlie the inconsistent findings that exist regarding differences in depression levels between Black and White caregivers, this study examined the factor structure and invariance of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) Scale.

Method: A confirmatory factor analysis of the 20-item CES-D was performed on a sample of 167 Black and 214 White family caregivers of older adults with dementia from Los Angeles County.

Results: The relationships between the 20 items and the four factors, as well as the relationships among each of the factors, were equivalent across both caregiver groups, indicating that the four-factor model fit the data for both the racial groups.

Conclusion: These findings offer further evidence that the standard four-factor model is the best fitting model for the CES-D and is invariant across racial groups.

Keywords:

• depressive symptoms
• dementia caregivers
• structural equation model
• factorial invariance

Acknowledgement

Support for this work was provided by the following grants from the National Institute of Health: R01 AG016307, T32 AG000037, T32 AG000117, T32 AG021794 and K12 HD055885.