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The Factor Structure of the Beck Depression Inventory–II

2008; SAGE Publishing; Volume: 15; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1177/1073191107311261

1552-3489

Stijn Vanheule, Mattias Desmet, Hans Groenvynck, Yves Rosseel, Johnny R. J. Fontaine,

Mental Health Research Topics

The Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II) is a frequently used scale for measuring depressive severity. BDI-II data (404 clinical; 695 nonclinical adults) were analyzed by means of confirmatory factor analysis to test whether the factor structure model with a somatic-affective and cognitive component of depression, formulated by Beck and colleagues, has a good fit. We also evaluated 10 alternative models. The fit of Beck's model was not good for all criteria. Three of the alternative models had a better fit in both samples, but none of these met all criteria for good fit. Of the alternatives with a better fit, we selected the only model with unidimensional subscales, which assesses a somatic, affective, and cognitive dimension. For this model, which we recommend, as well as for Beck' original model, a good fitting structure containing 15 and 16 items was developed with an item-deletion algorithm.