Lowe Gillian A, Lipps Garth E, Gibson Roger C, Jules Mia A, Kutcher Stanley
Departments of Community Health and Psychiatry (Lowe, Gibson) and of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work (Lipps) and School of Education (Jules), The University of the West Indies - Mona, Kingston, Jamaica; Department of Psychiatry (Kutcher), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS.
Departments of Community Health and Psychiatry (Lowe, Gibson) and of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work (Lipps) and School of Education (Jules), The University of the West Indies - Mona, Kingston, Jamaica; Department of Psychiatry (Kutcher), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS
CMAJ Open. 2018 Jul 5;6(3):E248-E253. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20170035. Print 2018 Jul-Sep.
Research on depression among Caribbean children has been limited by a lack of valid and reliable measures. We addressed this problem by exploring the internal consistency reliability and the concurrent and discriminant validity of the Kutcher Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (KADS) among a wide cross-section of the student population attending elementary schools in Jamaica and Barbados.
Students enrolled in grade 6 in a cross-section of schools in Jamaica and Barbados were invited to participate in the study. Schools included a balance of government-funded public schools and privately funded preparatory schools. All schools that were invited to participate accepted, and all grade 6 classrooms in each school were sampled. The following instruments were administered to the students during the fall semester of 2015: KADS, Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS), major depression disorder subscale of the Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS), and state and trait anxiety visual analogue scales.
In total, 759 children (376 girls [49.5%] and 363 boys [47.8%]; in 20 cases [2.6%], sex was missing) with a mean age of 10.7 (standard deviation 0.66) years (median 11.0 yr) took part in the study. Overall, the KADS had an acceptable degree of reliability (α = 0.76). The instrument had reasonably good concurrent validity, as evidenced by strong correlations with scores on the ADRS ( = 0.62) and the major depression disorder subscale of the RCADS ( = -0.61). It had acceptable discriminant validity, as shown through low correlations with the state and trait anxiety visual analogue scales ( = 0.21 and 0.18, respectively). This pattern of results suggests that a large part (37%) of the variance underlying the KADS assesses depression, and a smaller degree of the variance (3%-4%) measures a conceptually similar but distinct concept.
The KADS is a reliable and valid measure for assessing depressive symptoms among Jamaican and Barbadian elementary school students. The sample may not be representative of all Caribbean children.
由于缺乏有效且可靠的测量方法，加勒比地区儿童抑郁症的研究受到了限制。我们通过在牙买加和巴巴多斯的广泛小学生群体中探索库彻青少年抑郁评定量表（KADS）的内部一致性信度、同时效度和区分效度，解决了这一问题。
邀请牙买加和巴巴多斯不同学校六年级的学生参与研究。学校包括政府资助的公立学校和私立预备学校的均衡样本。所有受邀参与的学校都接受了邀请，并对每所学校的所有六年级班级进行了抽样。在2015年秋季学期，对学生使用了以下工具：KADS、青少年抑郁评定量表（ADRS）、修订版儿童焦虑与抑郁量表（RCADS）的重度抑郁障碍分量表以及状态和特质焦虑视觉模拟量表。
共有759名儿童（376名女孩[49.5%]和363名男孩[47.8%]；20例[2.6%]缺失性别信息）参与了研究，平均年龄为10.7岁（标准差0.66）（中位数11.0岁）。总体而言，KADS具有可接受的信度水平（α = 0.76）。该工具具有相当好的同时效度，与ADRS得分（= 0.62）和RCADS的重度抑郁障碍分量表得分（= -0.61）的强相关性证明了这一点。它具有可接受的区分效度，与状态和特质焦虑视觉模拟量表的相关性较低（分别为 = 0.21和0.18）。这种结果模式表明，KADS所评估的潜在方差中很大一部分（37%）是抑郁症，较小程度的方差（3%-4%）测量的是一个概念上相似但不同的概念。
KADS是评估牙买加和巴巴多斯小学生抑郁症状的可靠且有效的测量工具。该样本可能不代表所有加勒比地区儿童。
