title: Evaluation of the Psychometric Properties of the Asian Adolescent Depression Scale and Construction of a Short Form: An Item Response Theory Analysis.
abstract: The present study applied item response theory to examine the psychometric properties of the Asian Adolescent Depression Scale and to construct a short form among 1,084 teenagers recruited from secondary schools in Hong Kong. Findings suggested that some items of the full form reflected higher levels of severity and were more discriminating than others, and the Asian Adolescent Depression Scale was useful in measuring a broad range of depressive severity in community youths. Differential item functioning emerged in several items where females reported higher depressive severity than males. In the short form construction, preliminary validation suggested that, relative to the 20-item full form, our derived short form offered significantly greater diagnostic performance and stronger discriminatory ability in differentiating depressed and nondepressed groups, and simultaneously maintained adequate measurement precision with a reduced response burden in assessing depression in the Asian adolescents. Cultural variance in depressive symptomatology and clinical implications are discussed.
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Barbara Chuen Yee
authors.initials: BCY
authors.lastname: Lo
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Yue
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: 2 Prince of Wales Hospital, Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Alice Wai Yee
authors.initials: AWY
authors.lastname: Kwok
authors.affiliation: 3 The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Wai
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.affiliation: 1 The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR.
authors.forename: Calais Kin Yuen
authors.initials: CKY
authors.lastname: Chan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D044466:Asian People; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D006723:Hong Kong; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: adolescent depression; differential item functioning; item response theory; psychometric validation