title: The latent structure of child depression: a taxometric analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The current study examined the categorical versus continuous nature of child and adolescent depression among three samples of children and adolescents ranging from 5 to 19 years.
  
  
  METHODS
  Depression was measured using the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). Indicators derived from the CDI were based on factor analytic research on the CDI and included indices of: 1) social withdrawal, 2) anhedonia, 3) incompetence/maladjustment and 4) negative self-esteem.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Taxometric procedures provided convergent support for the existence of a latent taxon across three independent samples. Internal and external consistency tests as well as Monte Carlo simulations supported the validity of the results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Multiple nonredundant procedures and samples were all consistently indicative of taxonicity in child depression.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. Richey@psy.fsu.edu
authors.forename: J Anthony
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Richey
authors.forename: Norman B
authors.initials: NB
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Lonigan
authors.forename: Beth M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: Salvatore J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Catanzaro
authors.forename: Jeff
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Laurent
authors.forename: Rebecca R
authors.initials: RR
authors.lastname: Gerhardstein
authors.forename: Roman
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kotov
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009010:Monte Carlo Method; D010555:Personality Inventory; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D055815:Young Adult