Validation and factors of the "Escala de sintomatología depresiva para maestros" (ESDM) in adolescence

Abstract

When evaluating adolescent and child depression the most jrequently used instruments have been se!f analysis techniquefil/ed out by the subject betng studied himself, although a regular feature in scienttfic literature is that there is a need to use other tnstruments of evaluation directed at parents, teachers andlor school peers so that tt is possib/e to combine different sources of information. This paper is part of an investtgation addressed to evaluating the depressive simptomatology in the adolescence Valencian population. Here we present the validation and Jactors of the ESDM (Domenech and Polaina, 1990) used with a sample of 754 adolescents, 420 males and 334/emales. The age range is between 14 and 15, and most of the subjects study 1st of BUP or 1st of FP in 40 approved public schools in the city of Valencia. Apart from the ESDM, we have a/so used other instruments of autoevaluation: the CDI (Children's Depression lnventory) (Kovacs, 1985), the STAIC (Statel Trace Anxiety Inventory Jor Children) (Spielberger, 1990) y el CDE (School Desadaptation Questionnaire) (Clemente, Pérez-González y García Ros, 1990). The results show that there's a high correlation between ESDM seores and the seores of the rest of questionnaires used (p= 0.01). The analysis of the J actors of tbe Sea le has !P.t u~ establish Jour representative categories; the cognitive, af(ective, behavioural and school performance deificits that are associated with depression.