Salud Pública de México (Aug 2008)

Aplicación de la Escala de Depresión del Center of Epidemiological Studies en adolescentes de la Ciudad de México Application of the revised version of the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in adolescent students from Mexico City

  • Catalina González-Forteza,
  • José Alberto Jiménez-Tapia,
  • Luciana Ramos-Lira,
  • Fernando A Wagner

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 50, no. 4
pp. 292 – 299

Abstract

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OBJETIVO: Probar la validez de constructo, concurrente y externa, y la consistencia interna de la Escala de Depresión del Center for Epidemiologic Studies (CES-D-R) en adolescentes. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Estudio transversal con dos cohortes de estudiantes de secundaria del DF. El cuestionario incluyó la CES-D-R y otras escalas sobre problemas relacionados con suicidio, violencia, exposición a oportunidades y consumo de drogas. La participación fue voluntaria y anónima. RESULTADOS: Se incluyó a 1 549 estudiantes (edad promedio, 14 años; DE=1.2). La escala mostró una estructura de seis factores (varianza explicada, 55%), consistencia interna excelente (a=0.93), discriminación significativa entre puntajes extremos (z=-3.695, pOBJECTIVE: To assess the internal consistency, as well as the construct, concurrent and external consistency of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D-R) in Mexican adolescents. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The data are from two samples of middle-school students from Mexico City. The questionnaire included the CES-D-R and other scales for suicide problems, peer and family violence, and drug use. RESULTS: The sample included 1 549 students (mean age 14 years, SD=1.2). The CES-D-R showed a six-factor structure (explained variance, 55%) with an excellent internal consistency (a=0.93), a significant discriminative power for opposite scores (z=-3.695, p<0.001), and a positive significant correlation with the Roberts Suicidal Ideation Scale (r=0.685, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The CES-D-R has excellent psychometric characteristics for Mexican adolescents and therefore is deemed as an adequate tool for the assessment of depressive symptoms in large samples to detect mental health needs and design preventive interventions.

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