Depressive and Anxious Symptoms in Spanish Adolescents: Normative Data for the PHQ-9 and GAD-7

Abstract

Background: The main objective of this study was to provide Spanish normative data for the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Assessment-7 (GAD-7) in a community-derived sample of adolescents. Method: A total of 2,235 adolescents (M = 14.68 years, SD = 1.76 years), selected through stratified cluster sampling, participated in the study. Results: Self-reported symptoms of depression and anxiety were common. Statistically significant differences were found when comparing the means scores of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 across sex and age. Percentile scores were computed for both total scores and were stratified by sex and age. Conclusions: Both the PHQ-9 and the GAD-7 are brief, simple, and useful measurement instruments with adequate psychometric properties for the assessment of self-reported depressive and anxious symptomatology among Spanish adolescents. A reliable and valid assessment of mental health is essential, as it allows for early detection and identification, which in turn can help in guiding psychological preventive interventions in a critical human developmental stage such as adolescence.

Keywords

• depression
• anxiety
• adolescents
• phq-9
• gad-7
• scoring