Psychological Reports, 1992, 7 1 , 163-166. O Psychological Reports 1992
ASSESSMENT O F DEPRESSION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS: GERIATRIC DEPRESSION SCALE VERSUS CENTER FOR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES DEPRESSION SCALE ' T. L. BRINK AND LOUISE NIEMEYER Crafton Hills College Summary.-103 college students took the Geriatric Depression Scale and Center For Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale along with five measures of life satisfaction. The correlation between scores on the first scales was .66. Both depression scales had moderate negative correlations (-.34 to -.71) with each measure of L£e satisfaction. However, on every measure of life satisfaction, the correlation with scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale was higher than with those on the CES-Depression Scale.
The purpose of this study was to examine correlations of two different, frequently used measures of depression with five measures of life satisfaction in college students. METHOD Subjects were 103 students under the age of 25 years at several community colleges in southern California. Ethnically more than three-quarters of the sample were Anglo-Americans. All subjects were U.S. citizens. The sample was 61% (n = 63) women, and 93% (n = 96) reported that they had not yet married. Students anonymously responded to a seven-page questionnaire during classes in introductory psychology. Items included background measures (e.g., gender, age, citizenship) as well as six different measures of life satisfaction. One measure asked subjects to describe life satisfaction by circling words: "very satisfied," "mostly satisfied," "mostly dissatisfied," or "completely dissatisfied." Another measure had subjects mark one of seven faces (ranging from an extreme frown through an extreme smile). Another involved marking a point along a 100-millimeter line (with the extreme points representing complete dissatisfaction and complete satisfaction). Also included was Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers' (1976) measure of life satisfaction. This was a 7-point rating by numbers to indicate a response to the question "How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?" (1 = completely dissatisfied; 7 = completely satisfied). Then the ladder used in Gallup's (1985) poll was given: "Imagine a ladder. At the top is step number 10 representing the best possible life for you and the bottom represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder do you personally stand at the present
'Address correspondence to T. L. Brink, Ph.D., 1103 North Church Street, Redlands, CA 92374.
164
T. L. BRINK
&
L. NIEMEYER
time?" Finally, subjects took a five-item test, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffen, 1985). Each item was scored on a seven-point scale in Likert format from "totally agree" to "totally disagree." Also embedded in the questionnaire were two depression scales. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff & Teri, 1986) has been used with a wide range of ages and populations. The scale features 20 items covering a broad range of depressive symptomatology (affective, cognitive, behavioral, somatic, and interpersonal) as well as an ordinal response format based upon frequency of occurrence of individual depressive symptoms. The Geriatric Depression Scale (Brink, Yesavage, Lum, Heersema, Adey, & Rose, 1982) was specifically developed for the clinical assessment of depression in the aged. This scale has 30 items in a simplified "yeslno" response format and has no items relating to the somatic symptoms of depression. Vahdity with respect to depression late in life compares favorably with that of the Hamilton, Beck, and Zung depression scales (Brink, et al., 1982; Hyer & Blount, 1984). The Geriatric Depression Scale is unifactorial, giving it higher internal reliability than is found for other depression scales (Rapp, Parisi, & Walsh, 1988; Parmalee, Katz, & Lawton, 1989). In using the scale with alcoholics of various ages, Tarnkin, Hyer, and Carson (1986) concluded that responding to the scale was not contaminated by age. The validity of using the Geriatric Depression Scale with younger adults was established by Best, Davis, Morton, and Romeis (1984), who concluded that the Geriatric Depression Scale and the CES-Depression were the most valid self-rating scales for assessing depression in younger adults. Rule, Harvey, and Dobbs (1989) reported that the Geriatric Depression Scale had high internal reliability for young (twenties) as well as older adults. The only published study of its use with college students contains correlations of .77 and .67 between the scale and the Depressive Adjective Checklist for two different samples (Brannan, Pignatiello, & Camp, 1986). RESULTSAND DISCUSSION O n every measure the sample as a whole came out more on the side of expressing satisfaction rather than dissatisfaction with life and did not differ significantly from any published norms for U.S. adults. The CES-Depression mean of 12.4 (and standard deviation of 7.9) are close to those norms for young adults (Radloff & Teri, 1986). The mean of 7.6 for the Geriatric Depression Scale in this sample was slightly lower than those means (10.5 and 8.9) published by Brannan, etal. (1986). The correlation between the scores on the CES-Depression and Geriatric Depression Scale was moderate (.66) and similar to the correlations (.67 and .77) between the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Depressive Adjective Checklist reported in the samples of college students by Brannan, et al.
DEPRESSION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
TABLE 1
Scale
Range Possible Actual
Geriatric Depression CES-Depression Words Faces Numbers Ladder Test Line
Correlation With CES-, Geriatric Depression Depress~on .66 .66 -.61 -.69 -.48 -.56 -.63 -.71
-.34 -.54 -.44 -.50 -.50 -.58
(1986). I n the present study both the CES-Depression and the Geriatric Depression Scale had low to moderate negative correlations (-.34 to -.71) with each measure of life satisfaction. However, for every measure of life satisfaction, the correlation with the Geriatric Depression Scale was higher than that of the same measure of life satisfaction with the CES-Depression, although in only two cases was this difference significant (on a t test for the significance of the difference between dependent correlations): for the four-point rating by words (t= 3.63, p < 0.001) and the seven-point choice of faces (t= 2.12, p
ASSESSMENT O F DEPRESSION IN COLLEGE STUDENTS: GERIATRIC DEPRESSION SCALE VERSUS CENTER FOR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDIES DEPRESSION SCALE ' T. L. BRINK AND LOUISE NIEMEYER Crafton Hills College Summary.-103 college students took the Geriatric Depression Scale and Center For Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale along with five measures of life satisfaction. The correlation between scores on the first scales was .66. Both depression scales had moderate negative correlations (-.34 to -.71) with each measure of L£e satisfaction. However, on every measure of life satisfaction, the correlation with scores on the Geriatric Depression Scale was higher than with those on the CES-Depression Scale.
The purpose of this study was to examine correlations of two different, frequently used measures of depression with five measures of life satisfaction in college students. METHOD Subjects were 103 students under the age of 25 years at several community colleges in southern California. Ethnically more than three-quarters of the sample were Anglo-Americans. All subjects were U.S. citizens. The sample was 61% (n = 63) women, and 93% (n = 96) reported that they had not yet married. Students anonymously responded to a seven-page questionnaire during classes in introductory psychology. Items included background measures (e.g., gender, age, citizenship) as well as six different measures of life satisfaction. One measure asked subjects to describe life satisfaction by circling words: "very satisfied," "mostly satisfied," "mostly dissatisfied," or "completely dissatisfied." Another measure had subjects mark one of seven faces (ranging from an extreme frown through an extreme smile). Another involved marking a point along a 100-millimeter line (with the extreme points representing complete dissatisfaction and complete satisfaction). Also included was Campbell, Converse, and Rodgers' (1976) measure of life satisfaction. This was a 7-point rating by numbers to indicate a response to the question "How satisfied are you with your life as a whole?" (1 = completely dissatisfied; 7 = completely satisfied). Then the ladder used in Gallup's (1985) poll was given: "Imagine a ladder. At the top is step number 10 representing the best possible life for you and the bottom represents the worst possible life for you. On which step of the ladder do you personally stand at the present
'Address correspondence to T. L. Brink, Ph.D., 1103 North Church Street, Redlands, CA 92374.
164
T. L. BRINK
&
L. NIEMEYER
time?" Finally, subjects took a five-item test, the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener, Emmons, Larsen, & Griffen, 1985). Each item was scored on a seven-point scale in Likert format from "totally agree" to "totally disagree." Also embedded in the questionnaire were two depression scales. The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff & Teri, 1986) has been used with a wide range of ages and populations. The scale features 20 items covering a broad range of depressive symptomatology (affective, cognitive, behavioral, somatic, and interpersonal) as well as an ordinal response format based upon frequency of occurrence of individual depressive symptoms. The Geriatric Depression Scale (Brink, Yesavage, Lum, Heersema, Adey, & Rose, 1982) was specifically developed for the clinical assessment of depression in the aged. This scale has 30 items in a simplified "yeslno" response format and has no items relating to the somatic symptoms of depression. Vahdity with respect to depression late in life compares favorably with that of the Hamilton, Beck, and Zung depression scales (Brink, et al., 1982; Hyer & Blount, 1984). The Geriatric Depression Scale is unifactorial, giving it higher internal reliability than is found for other depression scales (Rapp, Parisi, & Walsh, 1988; Parmalee, Katz, & Lawton, 1989). In using the scale with alcoholics of various ages, Tarnkin, Hyer, and Carson (1986) concluded that responding to the scale was not contaminated by age. The validity of using the Geriatric Depression Scale with younger adults was established by Best, Davis, Morton, and Romeis (1984), who concluded that the Geriatric Depression Scale and the CES-Depression were the most valid self-rating scales for assessing depression in younger adults. Rule, Harvey, and Dobbs (1989) reported that the Geriatric Depression Scale had high internal reliability for young (twenties) as well as older adults. The only published study of its use with college students contains correlations of .77 and .67 between the scale and the Depressive Adjective Checklist for two different samples (Brannan, Pignatiello, & Camp, 1986). RESULTSAND DISCUSSION O n every measure the sample as a whole came out more on the side of expressing satisfaction rather than dissatisfaction with life and did not differ significantly from any published norms for U.S. adults. The CES-Depression mean of 12.4 (and standard deviation of 7.9) are close to those norms for young adults (Radloff & Teri, 1986). The mean of 7.6 for the Geriatric Depression Scale in this sample was slightly lower than those means (10.5 and 8.9) published by Brannan, etal. (1986). The correlation between the scores on the CES-Depression and Geriatric Depression Scale was moderate (.66) and similar to the correlations (.67 and .77) between the Geriatric Depression Scale and the Depressive Adjective Checklist reported in the samples of college students by Brannan, et al.
DEPRESSION AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS
TABLE 1
Scale
Range Possible Actual
Geriatric Depression CES-Depression Words Faces Numbers Ladder Test Line
Correlation With CES-, Geriatric Depression Depress~on .66 .66 -.61 -.69 -.48 -.56 -.63 -.71
-.34 -.54 -.44 -.50 -.50 -.58
(1986). I n the present study both the CES-Depression and the Geriatric Depression Scale had low to moderate negative correlations (-.34 to -.71) with each measure of life satisfaction. However, for every measure of life satisfaction, the correlation with the Geriatric Depression Scale was higher than that of the same measure of life satisfaction with the CES-Depression, although in only two cases was this difference significant (on a t test for the significance of the difference between dependent correlations): for the four-point rating by words (t= 3.63, p < 0.001) and the seven-point choice of faces (t= 2.12, p
