Components of Depressed Mood in Married Men and Women the Center for Epidemiologic Studies' Depression Scale1

The Center for Epidemiologic Studies' Depression Scale (CES-D) was developed to measure depressive symptoms in community populations. To be useful for epidemiologic studies of depression, the scale should measure the same thing in various subgroups. This study examines the psychometric properties of the CES-D among men and women, including its factor structure, reliability, and characteristics of its subscales. A national sample of 1,360 married men and women, collected in 1978, was used. Factor analysis produced four major factors in the CES-D: depressed affect, enervation , lack of positive affect, and interpersonal problems. These factors are generalizable across men and women with two exceptions--crying spells, which are a good indicator of depressed mood for women, do not indicate depressed mood for men; and feeling one's life is a failure is associated with depressed affect for women and with a lack of positive affect for men. The two items in the interpersonal factor (feeling that people dislike you and that people are unfriendly ) do not show the expected pattern of association with gender, since men have significantly more interpersonal symptoms than women. Women have more symptoms of depressed affect, enervation , and lack of positive affect.