Abstract
Identifying major depression in children and adolescents is more challenging than in adults. Questionnaires are often used for screening or guiding clinical assessment. Several instruments of different lengths are used as equivalent measures in diagnostic decisions. In this paper, we explore to what extent 18 commonly used depression scales for children and adolescents explore depression clinical symptoms as established by standard DSM-5 diagnosis criteria. We analyzed scale content adequacy by examining the overlap between scale contents and consensus clinical symptoms, the diagnostic time frame for active symptom assessment, and readability for the target age group. The 18 scales encompassed 52 distinct symptoms. These scales included just 50% of clinical symptoms required for diagnosis. The content overlap was low; on average, 29% of symptoms coincide across scales. Half of the scales did not use the standard period for active symptom appraisal, and some did not include a period for assessment. The reading levels on six scales were inappropriate for the scale’s target population age group. The substantial heterogeneity in defining the depressive syndrome, the low overlap among scales, different periods of a positive diagnosis, and mismatch of reading competence for detecting may lead to heterogeneity in clinical diagnoses when using different scales. Improving the content of self-report in terms of homogeneity of diagnostic criteria would lead to better diagnostic decisions and patient management.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Weersing VR, Jeffreys M, Do M-CT, et al. Evidence base update of psychosocial treatments for child and adolescent depression. J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol 2017; 46: 11–43.
Thapar A, Collishaw S, Pine DS et al (2012) Depression in adolescence. Lancet (London, England) 379:1056–1067
Ryan N (2005) Treatment of depression in children and adolescents. Lancet 366:933–940
Jane Costello E, Erkanli A, Angold A. Is there an epidemic of child or adolescent depression? J Child Psychol Psychiatry 2006; 0: 061024022229003
Merikangas KR, He J, Burstein M et al (2010) Lifetime prevalence of mental disorders in U.S. adolescents: results from the national comorbidity survey replication-adolescent supplement (NCS-A). J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 49:980–989
Kovacs M (1996) Presentation and course of major depressive disorder during childhood and later years of the life span. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:705–715
McCauley E, Myers K, Mitchell J et al (1993) Depression in young people: initial presentation and clinical course. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 32:714–722
Dunn V, Goodyer IM (2006) Longitudinal investigation into childhood- and adolescence-onset depression: Psychiatric outcome in early adulthood. Br J Psychiatry 188:216–222
Copeland WE, Shanahan L, Costello EJ et al (2009) Childhood and adolescent psychiatric disorders as predictors of young adult disorders. Arch Gen Psychiatry 66:764
Fergusson DM, Horwood LJ, Ridder EM et al (2005) Subthreshold depression in adolescence and mental health outcomes in adulthood. Arch Gen Psychiatry 62:66–72
Kim-Cohen J, Caspi A, Moffitt TE et al (2003) Prior juvenile diagnoses in adults with mental disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry 60:709
Hawton K, van Heeringen K (2009) Suicide. Lancet 373:1372–1381
Gore FM, Bloem PJN, Patton GC et al (2011) Global burden of disease in young people aged 10–24 years: A systematic analysis. Lancet 377:2093–2102
Birmaher B, Arbelaez C, Brent D (2002) Course and outcome of child and adolescent major depressive disorder. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 11(619–37):x
Lewinsohn PM, Rohde P, Seeley JR et al (2003) Psychosocial functioning of young adults who have experienced and recovered from major depressive disorder during adolescence. J Abnorm Psychol 112:353–363
Fergusson DM, Woodward LJ (2002) Mental health, educational, and social role outcomes of adolescents with depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 59:225–231
Keenan-Miller D, Hammen CL, Brennan PA (2007) Health outcomes related to early adolescent depression. J Adolesc Heal 41:256–262
Weissman MM, Wolk S, Goldstein RB et al (1999) Depressed adolescents grown up. JAMA 281:1707–1713
Kataoka SH, Zhang L, Wells KB (2002) Unmet need for mental health care among U.S. children: variation by ethnicity and insurance status. Am J Psychiatry 159:1548–1555
Wu P, Hoven CW, Cohen P et al (2001) Factors associated with use of mental health services for depression by children and adolescents. Psychiatr Serv 52:189–195
Leaf PJ, Alegria M, Cohen P et al (1996) Mental health service use in the community and schools: results from the four-community MECA Study. Methods for the epidemiology of child and adolescent mental disorders study. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 35:889–897
Roseman M, Kloda LA, Saadat N et al (2016) Accuracy of depression screening tools to detect major depression in children and adolescents: a systematic review. Can J Psychiat 61:746–757
American Psychiatric Association: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association, 2013
World Health Organizacion. International Classification of Diseases (ICD). World Health Organization
Vegni E, Kenny DT, Smorti M, et al. Child and Adolescent Depression: A Review of Theories, Evaluation Instruments, Prevention Programs, and Treatments. Front Psychol | www.frontiersin.org 2019; 1: 543.
Puura K, Tamminen T, Almqvist F et al (1997) Should depression in young school-children be diagnosed with different criteria? Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 6:12–19
Reddy LA, Richardson L (2006) School-based prevention and intervention programs for children with emotional disturbance. Educ Treat Child 29:379–404
Snaith P (1993) What do depression rating scales measure? Br J Psychiatry 163:293–298
Fried EI (2017) The 52 symptoms of major depression: Lack of content overlap among seven common depression scales. J Affect Disord 208:191–197
Santor DA, Gregus M, Welch A (2006) Focus article: eight decades of measurement in depression. Meas Interdiscip Res Perspect 4:135–155
Simmons M, Wilkinson P, Dubicka B (2015) Measurement Issues: Depression measures in children and adolescents. Child Adolesc Ment Health 20:230–241
Fried EI, Nesse RM (2015) Depression sum-scores don’t add up: why analyzing specific depression symptoms is essential. BMC Med 13:72
Evans JD (1996) Straightforward Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. Pacific Grove, CA
Power M, Fell G, Wright M (2013) Principles for high-quality, high-value testing. BMJ Evidence-Based Med 18:5–10
Jaureguizar J, Bernaras E, Garaigordobil M (2017) Child depression: prevalence and comparison between self-reports and teacher reports. Spanish J Psychol 20:E17
Eg J, Bilenberg N, Costello EJ et al (2018) Self- and parent-reported depressive symptoms rated by the mood and feelings questionnaire. Psychiatry Res 268:419–425
Pearson RM, Heron J, Button K et al (2015) Cognitive styles and future depressed mood in early adulthood: the importance of global attributions. J Affect Disord 171:60–67
Borsboom D, Mellenbergh GJ, Van Heerden J (2004) The concept of validity. Psychol Rev 111:1061–1071
Perlis ML, Grandner MA, Brown GK et al (2016) Nocturnal wakefulness as a previously unrecognized risk factor for suicide. J Clin Psychiatry 77:e726–e733
Kroenke K, Spitzer RL, Williams JB (2001) The PHQ-9: validity of a brief depression severity measure. J Gen Intern Med 16:606–613
Richardson LP, McCauley E, Grossman DC et al (2010) Evaluation of the patient health questionnaire (PHQ-9) for detecting major depression among adolescents. Pediatrics 126:1117
Aggarwal S, Angus B (2015) Misdiagnosis versus missed diagnosis: diagnosing autism spectrum disorder in adolescents. Australas Psychiatry 23:120–123
Henry CA, Nowinski L, Koesterer K et al (2014) Low rates of depressed mood and depression diagnoses in a clinic review of children and adolescents with autistic disorder. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 24:403–406
Chilakamarri JK, Filkowski MM, Ghaemi SN (2011) Misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder in children and adolescents: a comparison with ADHD and major depressive disorder. Ann Clin psychiatry Off J Am Acad Clin Psychiatr 23:25–29
Bhargava Raman RP, Sheshadri SP, Janardhan Reddy YC et al (2007) Is bipolar II disorder misdiagnosed as major depressive disorder in children? J Affect Disord 98:263–266
Merten EC, Cwik JC, Margraf J et al (2017) overdiagnosis of mental disorders in children and adolescents (in developed countries). Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health 11:5
Zimmerman M, Martinez JH, Friedman M et al (2012) How can we use depression severity to guide treatment selection when measures of depression categorize patients differently? J Clin Psychiatry 73:1287–1291
Brunelle K, Abdulle S, Gorey KM (2019) Anxiety and depression among socioeconomically vulnerable students with learning disabilities: exploratory meta-analysis. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 37:359–367
Hughes EK, Gullone E, Watson SD (2011) Emotional functioning in children and adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms. J Psychopathol Behav Assess 33:335–345
Favre T, Hughes C, Emslie G, et al. Executive functioning in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder. 2008; 15: 85–98.101080/09297040802577311
Verboom CE, Sijtsema JJ, Verhulst FC et al (2014) Longitudinal associations between depressive problems, academic performance, and social functioning in adolescent boys and girls. Dev Psychol 50:247–257
Beitchman JH, Wilson B, Johnson CJ et al (2001) Fourteen-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children: psychiatric outcome. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 40:75–82
Conti-Ramsden G, Botting N (2008) Emotional health in adolescents with and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI). J Child Psychol Psychiatry 49:516–525
Herman KC, Lambert SF, Reinke WM et al (2008) Low academic competence in first grade as a risk factor for depressive cognitions and symptoms in middle school. J Couns Psychol 55:400–410
Thombs BD, Coyne JC, Cuijpers P et al (2012) Rethinking recommendations for screening for depression in primary care. CMAJ 184:413–418
Shaffer D, Fisher P, Lucas CP et al (2000) NIMH diagnostic interview schedule for children version IV (NIMH DISC-IV): description, differences from previous versions, and reliability of some common diagnoses. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 39:28–38
Beck AT, Ward CH, Mendelson M, Mock J, Erbaugh J (1961) An inventory for measuring depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry 4:561–571
Stockings E, Degenhardt L, Lee YY et al (2015) Symptom screening scales for detecting major depressive disorder in children and adolescents: A systematic review and meta-analysis of reliability, validity and diagnostic utility. J Affect Disord 174:447–463
Birleson P (1978) A self-rating scale for depressive disorder in childhood. University of Edinburgh
Sonnby K, Skordas K, Vadlin S, et al. (2021) Psychometric validation of two versions of the adolescent depression self-rating scale (DSRS-A and DSRS-A Screener). Nord J Psychiatry 1–10
Weissman MM, Orvaschel H, Padian N (1980) Children’s symptom and social functioning self-report scales. Comparison of mothers’ and children’s reports. J Nerv Ment Dis 168:736–740
Lang M, Tisher M. Children’s depression scale. Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research
Kovacs M (1985) The children’s depression inventory (CDI). Psychopharmacol Bull 21:995–998
Reynolds WM (1986) Reynolds adolescent depression scale. Odessa, FL
Osman A, Gutierrez PM, Bagge CL et al (2010) Reynolds adolescent depression scale-second edition: a reliable and useful instrument. J Clin Psychol 66:1324–1345
Costello EJ, Angold A (1988) Scales to assess child and adolescent depression: checklists, screens, and nets. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 27:726–737
Eyre O, Bevan Jones R, Agha SS et al (2021) Validation of the short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire in young adulthood. J Affect Disord 294:883–888
Weinberg WA, Emslie GJ (1988) Weinberg screening affective scales (WSAS and WSAS-SF). J Child Neurol 3:294–296
Carlson GA, Cantwell DP (1982) Diagnosis of childhood depression: a comparison of the weinberg and DSM-III Criteria. J Am Acad Child Psychiatry 21:247–250
Reynolds WM (1989) Reynolds child depression scale. Professional manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological Assessment Resources
Newcomer PL, Barenbaum EM, Bryant BR (1994) Depression and anxiety in youth scale. Austin, TX : Pro-Ed
Lovibond S (1995) PF. PF of A. Manual for the depression anxiety stress scales. Sydney, N.S.W. : Psychology Foundation of Australia
Tran TD, Tran T, Fisher J (2013) Validation of the depression anxiety stress scales (DASS) 21 as a screening instrument for depression and anxiety in a rural community-based cohort of northern Vietnamese women. BMC Psychiatry 13:24
David J, Berndt D (1996) Multiscore depression inventory for children (MDI-C). Los Angeles, CA: Western Psychological Services
Cuijpers P, Boluijt P, Van Straten A (2008) Screening of depression in adolescents through the Internet : sensitivity and Specificity of two screening questionnaires. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 17:32–38
Chorpita BF, Yim L, Moffitt C et al (2000) Assessment of symptoms of DSM-IV anxiety and depression in children: a revised child anxiety and depression scale. Behav Res Ther 38:835–855
Ebesutani C, Bernstein A, Nakamura BJ et al (2010) A Psychometric analysis of the revised child anxiety and depression scale—parent version in a clinical sample. J Abnorm Child Psychol 38:249–260
Allgaier A-K, Pietsch K, Frühe B et al (2012) Screening for depression in adolescents: validity of the patient health questionnaire in pediatric care. Depress Anxiety 29:906–913
Brooks SJ, Krulewicz SP, Kutcher S (2003) The Kutcher adolescent depression scale: assessment of its evaluative properties over the course of an 8-week pediatric pharmacotherapy trial. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 13:337–349
LeBlanc JC, Almudevar A, Brooks SJ et al (2002) screening for adolescent depression: Comparison of the Kutcher adolescent depression scale with the Beck depression inventory. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 12:113–126
Revah-Levy A, Birmaher B, Gasquet I et al (2007) The adolescent depression rating scale (ADRS): a validation study. BMC Psychiatry 7:2
Lai JS, Nowinski C, Victorson D et al (2012) Quality-of-life measures in children with neurological conditions: pediatric neuro-QOL. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 26:36
Kaat AJ, Kallen MA, Nowinski CJ et al (2020) PROMIS® pediatric depressive symptoms as a harmonized score metric. J Pediatr Psychol 45:271–280
Funding
The following grants supported this work: Carlos III Health Institute (ISCII) FEDER (PI16/00165), and DIUE Commissioner for Universities and Research of the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017 SGR 452).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The funding sources were not involved in the development of this study.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Vilar, A., Sánchez-Martínez, N., Blasco, M.J. et al. Content agreement of depressive symptomatology in children and adolescents: a review of eighteen self-report questionnaires. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02056-w
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-022-02056-w