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INTERNALIZING/EXTERNALIZING BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS
NATIONAL SURVEY OF CHILD AND ADOLESCENT WELL-BEING
Measure: Children’s Depression Inventory
Background
The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) was designed to measure children’s depression by asking about their experiences of having certain feelings, such as sadness, as well as their engagement in certain activities (Dowd et al., 2002; Kovacs, 1992).
The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) was funded and administered by the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The study has been conducted through collaboration between staff at the Research Triangle Institute, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Caliber Associates, and the University of California at Berkeley.
Population Assessed
Children ages seven to 17 were assessed using the CDI. Overall, the two NSCAW sample components are made up of 6,227 children; 5,501 of those children had contact with the child welfare system within the 15-month period beginning in October 1999. At the time of sampling, the children ranged in age from birth to 14 years old; infants, children who have been abused sexually, and children who are receiving services were oversampled. The results of the survey can be generalized to the population that comes in contact with the child welfare system in the United States. The CDI was given to 2,663 children in Wave 1 and 2,533 children in Wave 3.
The child protective services and long-term foster care sample components were fairly evenly distributed across the various child age categories from birth to age 14. At the time of the Wave 1 interview, just under 30 percent of the children fell under age 2. Another 21.6 percent fell between the ages of 2 and 5. Around 27 percent of the sample of children fell between the ages of 6 and 10. And 22 percent of the child sample fell between the ages of 11 and 14 at the time of the initial interview.
The racial and ethnic make-up of the combined child sample was diverse. American Indians made up 6.2 percent of the sample; Asian, Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islanders made up 2.4 percent of the sample; 35.7 percent of the sample was African American or Black; 49.6 percent of the sample was White. Across these racial groups, 17.3 percent were classified as being of Hispanic ethnic background. (See survey description for more information on the population.)
Periodicity
Data for the CDI were collected at Wave 1 between November 15, 1999 and April 30, 2001, and Wave 3, between April 1, 2001, and September 30, 2002. The CDI is also included in Wave 4 data collection, which should be complete by March 31, 2004.
Subscales/Components
Five factors of depressive symptoms include negative mood, ineffectiveness, anhedonia, interpersonal problems, and negative self-esteem.
Procedures for Administration
Children ages 7 to 17 are assessed using the CDI. Computer-assisted personal interviewing is used to ask respondents a set of questions about certain feelings that they may have experienced and certain activities they have participated in. The CDI takes between 5 and 7 minutes to administer.
Psychometrics/Data Quality
The psychometric information provided below is based on a normative sample that was made up of children ages 7 to 16 from public high schools in Florida (Kovacs, 1992). Children falling at or above the 91st percentile for their gender and age group were classified as depressed using the CDI (Kovacs, 1992).
Based on a set of studies conducted from 1983 to 1991, internal consistency has been of good quality. Cronbach’s alpha ranged from .71 to .86.
Cronbach’s alpha for five subscales (factors)—negative mood, interpersonal problems, ineffectiveness, anhedonia, and negative self-esteem—were less robust, ranging from .59 to .68.
Test-retest reliability in this set of studies ranged from .38 to .87 depending on the sample and the time interval between tests.
Concurrent validity was established with the Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory (-.67 for boys; -.72 for girls).
Languages Available
The questionnaire module was administered only in English according to the publisher’s requirements.
Items Included
Kids sometimes have certain feelings and ideas. Which one of these sentences comes closest to saying how you have felt in the past 2 weeks?
I am sad once in a while.
I am sad many times.
I am sad all the time.
Nothing will ever work out for me.
I am not sure if things will work out for me.
Things will work out for me o.k.
I do most things o.k.
I do many things wrong.
I do everything wrong.
I have fun in many things.
I have fun in some things.
Nothing is fun at all.
I am bad all the time.
I am bad many times.
I am bad once in a while.
I think about bad things happening to me once in a while.
I worry that bad things will happen to me.
I am sure that terrible things will happen to me.
I hate myself.
I do not like myself.
I like myself.
All bad things are my fault.
Many bad things are my fault.
Bad things are not usually my fault.
I do not think of killing myself.
I think about killing myself but I would not do it.
I want to kill myself.
Have you had these thoughts in the past 2 weeks?
Yes
No
Do you have a plan to carry out these thoughts?
Yes
No
I feel like crying every day.
I feel like crying many days.
I feel like crying once in a while.
Things bother me all the time.
Things bother me many times.
Things bother me once in a while.
I like being with people.
I do not like being with people many times.
I do not like being with people at all.
Things bother me all the time.
Things bother me many times.
Things bother me once in a while.
I like being with people.
I do not like being with people many times.
I do not want to be with people at all.
I cannot make up my mind about things.
It is hard to make up my mind about things.
I make up my mind about things easily.
I look o.k.
There are some bad things about my looks.
I look ugly.
I have to push myself all the time to do my schoolwork.
I have to push myself many times to do my schoolwork.
Doing schoolwork is not a big problem.
I have trouble sleeping every night.
I have trouble sleeping many nights.
I sleep pretty well.
I am tired once in a while.
I am tired many days.
I am tired all the time.
Most days I do not feel like eating.
Many days I do not feel like eating.
I eat pretty well.
I do not worry about aches and pains.
I worry about aches and pains many times.
I worry about aches and pains all the time.
I do not feel alone.
I feel alone many times.
I feel along all the time.
I never have fun at school.
I have fun at school only once in a while.
I have fun at school many times.
I have plenty of friends.
I have some friends but I wish I had more.
I do not have any friends.
My schoolwork is alright.
My schoolwork is not as good as before. I do very badly in subjects I used to be good in.
I can never be as good as other kids. I can be as good as other kids if I want to. I am just as good as other kids.
Nobody really loves me.
I am not sure if anybody loves me. I am sure that somebody loves me.
I usually do what I am told.
I do not do what I am told most times. I never do what I am told.
I get along with people. I get into fights many times. I get into fights all the time.
References and Source Documents
Some of the references listed below were cited in source documents if they were not readily available.
Achenbach, T.M. (1991a). Manual for the child behavior checklist 2–3 and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Achenbach, T. (1991b). Manual for the child behavior checklist 4–18 and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Achenbach, T.M. (1991c). Manual for the youth self-report and 1991 profile. Burlington: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont.
Asher, S., & Wheeler, V. (1985). Children’s loneliness: A comparison of rejected and neglected peer status. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 53(4), 500–505.
Briere, J. (1996). Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children: Professional Manual. Florida: Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc.
Dowd, K., Kinsey, S., Wheeless, S., Thissen, R., Richardson, J., Suresh, R., Mierzwa, F., Biemer, P., Johnson, I., and Lytle, T. (2003, September). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Combined Waves 1–3 data file user’s manual. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University, National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect.
Dowd, K., Kinsey, S., Wheeless, S., Thissen, R., Richardson, J., Mierzwa, F., & Biemer, P. (2002, May). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Wave 1 Data File User’s Manual. National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect: Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.
Gresham, F.M., & Elliott, S.N. (1990). Social Skills Rating System. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children’s Depression Inventory. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-health Systems, Inc.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children, Youth and Families (2001, June). National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: Local Child Welfare Agency Survey: Report. Washington, D.C. URL: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/nscaw/index.html.
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