Demographic variables (n = 730).

Childhood-onset depression has adverse consequences that are sustained into adulthood, which increases the significance of detection in early childhood. The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) is used globally in evaluating depressive symptom severity in adolescents, and its second version, the CDI-2, was developed by taking into account advances in childhood depression research. Prior research has reported inconsistencies in its factor structure across populations. In addition, the CDI-2 has not yet been empirically validated with Southeast Asian populations. This study sought to empirically validate the CDI-2’s psychometric properties and evaluate its factorial structure with a Singaporean community sample of non-clinical respondents. A total sample of 730 Singaporean children aged between 8.5 and 10.5 years was used. Psychometric properties of the CDI-2, including internal consistency as well as convergent and discriminant validity, were assessed. Factor analyses were conducted to assess the developers’ original two-factor structure for a Southeast Asian population. This two-factor structure was not supported in our sample. Instead, the data provided the best fit for a hierarchical two-factor structure with factors namely, socio-emotional problems and cognitive-behavioural problems. This finding suggests that socio-cultural and demographic elements influence interpretation of depressive symptoms and therefore the emerging factor structure of the construct under scrutiny. This study highlights the need to further examine the CDI-2 and ensure that its interpretation is culture-specific. More qualitative work could also bring to light the idiosyncratic understanding of depressive symptomatology, which would then guide culture-specific validation of the CDI-2.

儿童起病的抑郁会产生持续至成年期的不良后果，这凸显了幼儿阶段抑郁筛查的重要性。儿童抑郁量表（Children’s Depression Inventory, CDI）目前在全球范围内被用于评估青少年的抑郁症状严重程度，其第二版CDI-2则是结合儿童抑郁领域的研究进展研发而成。既往研究显示，该量表的因子结构在不同人群中存在不一致性。此外，CDI-2尚未在东南亚人群中完成实证效度检验。本研究旨在以新加坡社区非临床受访者为样本，对CDI-2的心理测量学特性进行实证验证，并评估其因子结构。本研究共纳入730名年龄介于8.5至10.5岁之间的新加坡儿童作为研究样本。研究评估了CDI-2的各项心理测量学特性，包括内部一致性、会聚效度与区分效度。通过因子分析，本研究检验了量表开发者最初提出的、适用于东南亚人群的双因子结构。该双因子结构在本研究样本中未得到支持。取而代之的是，数据结果显示分层双因子结构拟合度最优，该结构包含社会情绪问题与认知行为问题两个因子。该研究结果表明，社会文化与人口统计学因素会影响研究者对抑郁症状的解读，进而影响所研究构念的因子结构推导。本研究强调，有必要对CDI-2开展进一步研究，并确保其解读方式具备文化适配性。未来可开展更多质性研究，以揭示不同文化背景下个体对抑郁症状的独特认知，进而为CDI-2的文化适配性效度检验提供指导。