Validity and reliability of Children's Depression Inventory among primary school students in Chongqing

Objective To evaluate the reliability and validity of the Chinese version of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) in Chongqing primary school students aged 6~13 years, and analyze their depression situation. Methods Cluster sampling was used to conduct psychological assessment on 30 088 students aged 6~13 years from 56 primary schools in an urban area of Chongqing during December 2020 and January 2021. Cronbach's α coefficient, Pearson correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to test the reliability and validity of CDI. ANOVA test and t test were used to analyze the depression of students. Results ① The reliability analysis showed that the total internal consistency coefficient of CDI was 0.830, the α coefficient of each subscale was 0.488~0.752, and the partial correlation coefficient was 0.867. In the validity analysis, content validity showed that, except for item 26, the correlation coefficients between the other items and the total score were ≥0.349, with statistical significance (P < 0.01). The structural validity showed that the five-factor model fitted well after modification. ② The total score of depression was 10.97±7.86, and that of the boys was 10.66±7.56, which was significantly lower than that of the girls (11.29±8.16, P < 0.001). According to their age and sex, the overall depression of primary school students presented a three-stage distribution, and the age of 10 years was the demarcation point of the difference between the boys and girls. Conclusion The CDI scale has good reliability and validity in Chongqing primary school students aged 6~13 years, but some contents still need to be modified. Depression situation differs from different age and gender.