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Psychometric characteristics of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale for Children (CES-DC) were evaluated with 148 child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and concurrent validity were adequate. Principal components analysis identified three distinct factors: behavioral and cognitive components of depression and a happiness dimension. However, subsequent factor scores and CES-DC total scores were unable to discriminate DSM-III diagnoses, including depressive and nondepressive categories. The CES-DC showed poor reliability and validity in the children alone but had good psychometric properties for the adolescents. More validational research is required before standard clinical use can be recommended.
Faulstich et al. (Fri,) studied this question.