Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of Children's Depression Inventory 2 Short Version as a Screening Tool: A Comparison With the Standard 28-Item Version

Mediating role of social skills in the longitudinal relationship between intrapersonal perfectionism and psychological well-being of preadolescents

Intrapersonal perfectionism is the dispositional tendency to impose perfectionistic expectations on oneself and is considered a bidimensional construct that consists of standards perfectionism and discrepancy perfectionism. Although scholars established the links between standards perfectionism and psychological adjustment and between discrepancy perfectionism and psychopathology, the mechanisms that explain these associations remain relatively unknown. Thus, a better understanding of these mechanisms, especially in children, is warranted given their high prevalence in this developmental population and potential destructiveness on psychological well-being. The present study examined whether social skills with peers mediated the link between the dimensions of interpersonal perfectionism and psychological outcomes due to the salience of social skills acquisition in middle childhood. The study included 225 students (nfemale = 114; nmale = 111) with ages ranging from 7 to 10 years at Time 1 (T1; Mage = 8.55, SD = 1.15) and from 8 to 11 years at Time 2 (T2; Mage = 9.52, SD = 1.10). Participants provided responses on measures concerning standards perfectionism, discrepancy perfectionism, social skills, and psychological well-being at both time points. Longitudinal structural equation modeling indicated that standards perfectionism was positively associated with increases in social skills over time and psychological well-being, whereas discrepancy perfectionism was linked with decreases in social skills over time followed by psychological maladjustment. The study discusses implications for interventions and treatments.

Development and evaluation of short-form version of the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire: study a new and best brief instrument of Chinese medicine for health management

BACKGROUND

More efficient instruments for body constitution identification are needed for clinical practice. We aimed to develop the short-form version of the Constitution in Chinese Medicine Questionnaire (CCMQ) and evaluate for health management.

METHODS

First, the short forms were developed through expert survey, classical test theory (CTT), and modern item response (IRT) based on the CCMQ. A combination of e-mail and manual methods was used in expert survey. Then, five indexes of CTT including criteria value-critical ratio, correlation coefficient, discrete tendency, internal consistency, and factor loading were used. And, IRT method was used through analyzing the discrimination and difficulty parameters of items. Second, the three top-ranked items of each constitution scale were selected for the simplified CCMQ, based on the three combined methods of different conditions and weights. Third, The psychometric properties such as completion time, validity (Construct, criterion, and divergent validity), and reliability (test-retest and internal consistency reliability) were evaluated. Finally, the diagnostic validity of the best short-form used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve.

RESULTS

Three short-form editions were developed, and retained items 27, 23 and 27, which are named as WangQi nine body constitution questionnaire of Traditional Chinese Medicine (short-form) (SF-WQ9CCMQ)- A, B, and C, respectively. SF-WQ9CCMQ- A is showed the best psychometric property on Construct validity, Criterion validity, test-retest reliability and internal consistency reliability. The diagnostic validity indicated that the area under the ROC curve was 0.928 (95%CI: 0.924-0.932) for the Gentleness constitution scale, and were 0.895-0.969 and 0.911-0.981 for unbalance constitution scales using the cut-off value of the original CCMQ as 40 ("yes" standard) and 30 ("tendency" standard), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

Our study successfully developed a well short-form which has good psychometric property, and excellent diagnostic validity consistent with the original. New and simplified instrument and opportunity are provided for body constitution identification, health management and primary care implementation.

Screening for depressive symptoms in adolescence: A Rasch analysis of the short-form childhood depression inventory-2 (CDI 2:SR[S])

BACKGROUND

Screening for depressive symptoms during adolescence is of high clinical significance. The shorter 12-item version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI 2:SR[S]) was specifically developed for this purpose. Evaluations of the CDI 2:SR[S] psychometrics are limited, however. The purpose of this study was to validate the CDI 2: SR[S] for use as a screening measure using Rasch analysis.

METHODS

The CDI 2: SR[S] was administered online to 1513 10-17 year old Western Australian adolescents (635 males, 878 females) from 11 schools. Overall fit, individual item fit, local response dependence, dimensionality, operation of response categories, and differential item functioning (DIF) were examined.

RESULTS

The Rasch analysis demonstrated the CDI 2: SR[S] has good reliability. Thresholds for all items were ordered, showing its three response categories functioned as intended. One item (I have to push myself to do schoolwork) showed misfit. No items were locally dependent. Two items (I am sad) and (I have to push myself to do schoolwork) showed DIF for gender. At the same level of depression, females reported being sad more than males, while males pushed themselves more to do schoolwork than did females. Adolescents (14-17 years) reported significantly higher mean depressive symptom scores than early adolescents (10-13 years).

LIMITATIONS

Sole reliance on adolescent's self-report and limited data about cultural backgrounds are limitations.

CONCLUSIONS

The results support the interval scale measurement properties of the CDI 2: SR[S] and provides educators, clinicians and researchers with a screening measure to assess depressive symptoms in adolescents.

Negative Events Related to School Functioning and Their Relationship with the Risk of Depression in Adolescents

Negative experiences experienced by adolescents can cause the risk of developing mental health disorders, social maladaptation and academic problems. The aim of the study is to identify the risk of depression in adolescents in connection with experienced negative life events. The study involved 507 students of urban and rural secondary schools aged 12–17 years (median, quartiles 14 [14; 15]), 47.5% boys, 52.5% girls. The M. Kovacs Depression Scale (Children's Depression Inventory, CDI) and the Adolescent Mental Life Events Scale (ASLEC) were used. With adolescents who showed a high level of risk of depression on the CDI scale, an additional clinical interview was conducted. It is shown that adolescents perceive most of the negative events they have experienced as significant. A significant proportion of them account for life events related to school functioning, while no significant differences were found in the groups of boys and girls. It is suggested that the events experienced by students related to school functioning, in the absence of a statistically significant relationship with the risk of depression, may still increase the risk of depression in the presence of events in the life of adolescents related to family functioning (family conflicts, physical punishment in the family) and psychological factors (criticism or punishment). The data obtained concerning the frequency of experiencing negative life events related to the school sphere and noted by respondents as significant, make it necessary to work with teachers in the context of health-preserving psychological and pedagogical support.