Development and Initial Evaluation of a Multiscore Depression Inventory

Abstract

The construction and evaluation of a new self-report depression inventory was presented. Altogether 833 subjects participated in the various phases of the study. A sequential item selection strategy resulted in an inventory that provided separate scores for ten subscales: Sad Mood, Fatigue, Learned Helplessness, Guilt, Pessimism, Social introversion, Irritability, Instrumental Helplessness, Low Self-Esteem, and Cognitive Difficulty. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were satisfactory. Concurrent validity of the full scale was demonstrated by high correlations with existing measures. Criterion related validity and face validity were also demonstrated. It was concluded that the new inventory might prove to be a useful research tool for studying depression in normal populations, and the need for further evaluation of psychometric properties in normal and clinical populations was noted.