Assessment of childhood depression.

The psychometric properties of the newly developed Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (PNID) were examined within a cross-validation model. Subjects were 452 boys and 492 girls whose combined mean age was 10.24 years (SD = .78). Consisting of 13 depression, 4 happiness, and 2 popularity items, the PNID was group administered to the children, who were distributed among 61 classes of 10 public schools. Self-ratings, teacher ratings, pupil personnel records, and census tract data were also obtained. Reliability assessed through coefficient alpha, item-total correlations, test-retest coefficients, and interrater agreement proved highly acceptable. Content validity was determined by experts' judgments. Measures of concurrent validity comprised of self-ratings and teacher ratings were significantly correlated with the PNID, as were 13 of the 15 variables used to assess construct validity. Subjects with high PNID scores exhibited depressed intellectual functioning, poor social behavior, and diminished ebullience. They perceived control over events as external and had poor school attendance. The purpose of the present study was to explore the feasibility of constructing a reliable and valid peer nomination technique to assess symptoms of depression in a normal population of prepubertal children. No standardized assessment method exists that can be used in research addressing the epidemiological and longitudinal questions regarding these symptoms. The most salient questions concerning