Depression in the community setting: Development and initial validation of the Daily Goals Scale

Abstract

Background

Several studies have demonstrated that constructing simple daily goals in the form of positive activities alleviate depressed mood. However, currently there is a paucity of scales for assessing the setting of simple daily goals. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Daily Goals Scale (DGS), a new scale designed to measure the propensity to set and achieve small daily goals.

Methods

This study examined the construct validity and reliability of this new scale in a community‐based sample of (N = 178) men and women (aged 18–70 years). All participants were asked to complete the DGS, along with the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, Negative Disposition, Adaptive Bias Scale, and Hope Scale.

Results

The results provided evidence for the scale's factorial validity. Findings also showed that the DGS was internally consistent. Moreover, both convergent and discriminant validity were demonstrated. Notably, the DGS negatively correlated with anhedonic depression, but it was unrelated to the measure of anxiety.

Conclusion

The DGS demonstrated adequate psychometric properties and is an easy‐to‐use self‐report measure of the propensity to set and achieve small daily goals.

Abstract

Key words:

• community settings
• daily goals
• depression

Funding: None.

Conflict of interest: None.

Funding: None.

Conflict of interest: None.

Notes

Funding: None.

Conflict of interest: None.