Youth screening depression: Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in a representative sample of adolescents

•Depression symptoms constitute one of the major public health challenges among youths.•Routine screening has the potential to improve the early and reliable identification of depressive symptoms.•The PHQ-9 is a brief, easy, and reliable tool for assessing self-reported depressive symptoms in young people.•PHQ-9 may be used as a screening tool for universal early detection of depression during adolescence.