Psychometric Properties of the Beck Depression Inventory–II in Low-Income, African American Suicide Attempters

Cross-cultural examinations of the validity and reliability of the Beck Depression Inventory–II (Beck, Steer, Ball, & Ranieri, 1996 Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A. and Brown, G. K. 1996. Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory–II, San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation. [Google Scholar]) is essential for its use in assessment and monitoring of the effectiveness of suicide interventions across racial groups. We tested the fit of a second-order, two-factor model and the internal reliability of the BDI–II in a sample of 133 African Americans with a recent history of suicide attempts. Additionally, we examined the convergent validity with the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (Reynolds & Koback, 1995 Reynolds, W. M. and Koback, K. A. 1995. Reliability and validity of the Hamilton Depression Inventory: A paper-and-pencil version of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale Clinical Interview. Psychological Assessment, 7: 472–483. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The results indicate that the BDI–II is a reliable and valid measure of depressive symptoms for African American suicide attempters.