Reevaluating positive affect in the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression scale.
In 2000, Schroevers and colleagues examined the reliability and validity of a two-factor structure for the Dutch version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale in cancer patients and in a community sample. The authors concluded that a two-factor structure assessing Positive Affect (PA) and Depressed Affect was a better fit to the data than the standard four-factor structure. They argued further that the four reverse-scored items composing the PA scale should be dropped. Using similar measures and analyses as Schroevers and colleagues, we examined the factor structure and concurrent validity of the English version of the CES-D in university student and community samples. Across both samples the factor structure was more similar to Radloff's (1977) original four-factor structure than to the proposed two-factor structure. Additionally, our validity analyses indicated no problems with the PA items and suggested that PA might be more specifically related to depression than to other forms of psychopathology. We recommend that clinicians and researchers using the English version of the CES-D continue to use the full 20-item version.
Institute of Community and Family Psychiatry at SMBD Jewish General Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. trevor.olson@usask.ca
Trevor Randell
TR
Olson
Michelle Dawn
MD
Presniak
Michael William
MW
MacGregor
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D013223:Statistics as Topic; D055815:Young Adult