Psychometric Characteristics and Factor structure of Children and Adolescent Depression Scale (CADS) and Depression Status among Female Adolescents

Children and Adolescents Depression Scale (CADS) is a self-report scale designed for diagnosis and assessment of the level and intensity of MDD in children and adolescents. The aim of this study was to assess the psychometric and factorial structure of CADS as well as major depressive disorder (MDD) status among adolescent girls (14-19 years). 417 female adolescent students from different areas of Tehran completed the scale. Scale reliability was assessed through internal reliability (Cronbach’s alpha and half-splitting), inter-item correlation and test-retest methods and all revealed a desirable level of reliability of CADS. Factor analysis was done via two major Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). EFA via Principal Components Factor Analysis, Parallel Analysis and Minimum Average Partial (MAP) Test showed a one-factor model in the CADS, which assesses depression. Afterwards, CFA supported a one-factor model of depression. Analyses of the CADS results indicated that 32.9% of the subjects were with no signs of depression, while 67.1% of them have depressive signs and symptoms to severe MDD. According to these findings, it seems that CADS could be used as a preferable scale to assess and screen depressive signs as well as depressive disorders both in research and in clinical settings. In addition, regarding the high rate of incidence of depressive signs and symptoms among female adolescent students, the necessity of systematic cognitive-behavioral interventions is obvious.