Validation of the Gujarati Version of Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) and Prevalence of Depressive Symptoms amongst School Going Adolescents in Gujarat, India

Abstract

Introduction: Adolescents are at-risk for mental health issues especially depression. Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale for Children (CES-DC) is a validated scale to screen for depressive symptoms in population-based samples of children and adolescents. There is a need to validate available screening tools in local language to screen adolescents for depressive symptoms. Aim: To validate CES-DC in Gujarati and to assess prevalence of depressive symptoms and its associated socio-demographic factors among school going adolescents. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among students studying in 8th to 12th standards (13 years to 17 years) from five Gujarati medium schools in Gujarat. CES-DC, Patient Health Questionnaire-9 and Rosenberg selfesteem scale were used for validation part of the study. Sociodemographic data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. Validity of the Gujarati version of CES-DC was assessed by checking for semantic, content equivalence, convergent and discriminant validity. The validated CES-DC scale, was used in a larger sample to assess prevalence of depressive symptoms. Descriptive analysis was done to assess prevalence of depressive symptoms among students and associations and were compared using chi-square test. Results: Validation study was conducted among 300 participants. Gujarati translation of CES-DC scale was found to have acceptable semantic equivalence, content validity index, convergent, divergent validity and reliability. A total of 1000 students from urban and rural schools were surveyed, 53.2% students had a high CES-DC score. Prevalence of self-reported depressive symptoms increased with increase in class. Girls from 11th and 12th classes had more depressive symptoms. Conclusion: The newly-translated scale can be used as selfreporting tool in detecting depressive symptoms of Gujarati children studying in 8th to 12th standard of school. Significant proportion of school going adolescents had depressive symptoms.

Keywords

• child
• depression
• epidemiology
• rating scale
• translating