Abstract
Item response theory (IRT) methods allow for comparing the utility of instruments based on the range and precision of severity assessed by each instrument. As adolescents and young adults can display rapid increases in depressive symptoms, there is a crucial need to sensitively assess mild elevations of symptoms (as an index of initial risk) and moderate-severe symptoms (as an indicator of treatment disposition). We compare the information assessed by the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) to the newly developed Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System – Depression measure (PROMIS-Depression), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies – Depression (CES-D) scale. The present work is based on data from two fully independent samples of community adolescents and young adults. One sample completed the BDI and CES-D (n = 1,482) and the second sample (n = 673) completed the PROMIS-Depression measure and the CES-D. Using two different IRT-based linking methods, (1) equating based on common items and (2) concurrent calibration methods, analyses revealed that the PROMIS-Depression measure assessed information over the widest range of depressive severity with greatest measurement precision relative to the other instruments. This was true for both the 28-item and 8-item versions of the PROMIS-Depression measure. Findings suggest that the PROMIS-Depression measure assessed depression severity with greatest precision and over the widest severity range of the assessed instruments. However, future work is necessary to demonstrate that the PROMIS-Depression measure has reliable associations with external criteria and is sensitive to treatment response.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., Messer, S. C., & Pickles, A. (1995). Development of a short questionnaire for use in epidemiological studies of depression in children and adolescents. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 5, 237–249.
Baker, F. B. (2001). The basics of item response theory. In ERIC clearinghouse on assessment and evaluation. College Park, MD: University of Maryland. Available at: http://ericae.net/irt/baker
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Carbin, M. G. (1988). Psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory: twenty-five years of evaluation. Clinical Psychology Review, 8, 77–100.
Carmody, T. J., Rush, A., Bernstein, I. H., Brannan, S., Husain, M. M., & Trivedi, M. H. (2006). Making clinicians lives easier: guidance on use of the QIDS self-report in place of the MADRS. Journal of Affective Disorders, 95, 115–118.
DeWitt, E. M., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., Irwin, D. E., Langer, M., Varni, J. W., et al. (2011). Construction of the eight-item patient-reported outcomes measurement information system pediatric physical function scales: built using item response theory. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 64, 794–804.
Embretson, S. E., & Reise, S. P. (2000). Item response theory for psychologists. Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Fournier, J. C., DeRubeis, R. J., Hollon, S. D., Dimidjian, S., Amsterdam, J. D., Shelton, R. C., et al. (2010). Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity. Journal of the American Medical Association, 303, 47–53.
Gibbons, R. D., Weiss, D. J., Pilkonis, P. A., Frank, E., Moore, T., Kim, J. B., et al. (2012). Development of a computerized adaptive test for depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 69, 1104–1112.
Hankin, B. L., Abramson, L. Y., Moffitt, T. E., Silva, P. A., McGee, R., & Angell, K. E. (1998). Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: emerging gender differences in a 10-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 107, 128–140.
Irwin, D. E., Stucky, B., Langer, M. M., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Lai, J. S., et al. (2010). An item response analysis of the pediatric PROMIS anxiety and depressive symptoms scales. Quality of Life Research, 19, 595–607.
Irwin, D. E., Gross, H. E., Stucky, B. D., Thissen, D., DeWitt, E. M., Lai, J. S., et al. (2012). Development of six PROMIS pediatrics proxy-report item banks. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes, 10, 22.
Klein, D. N., Dougherty, L. R., & Olino, T. M. (2005). Toward guidelines for evidence-based assessment of depression in children and adolescents. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 34, 412–432.
Klein, D. N., Shankman, S. A., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (2009). Subthreshold depressive disorder in adolescents: predictors of escalation to full-syndrome depressive disorders. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 48, 703–710.
Kovacs, M. (1992). Children’s depression inventory. North Tonawanda: Multi-Health System.
Kroenke, K., Spitzer, R. L., & Williams, J. B. W. (2001). The PHQ-9. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 16, 606–613.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Hops, H., Roberts, R. E., Seeley, J. R., & Andrews, J. A. (1993). Adolescent psychopathology: I. Prevalence and incidence of depression and other DSM-III–R disorders in high school students. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 133–144.
Lewinsohn, P. M., Clarke, G. N., Seeley, J. R., & Rohde, P. (1994). Major depression in community adolescents: age at onset, episode duration, and time to recurrence. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 33, 809–818.
Lipsman, N., & Lozano, A. M. (2011). The most cited works in major depression: the ‘citation classics’. Journal of Affective Disorders, 134, 39–44.
Lord, F. M. (1980). Applications of item response theory to practical testing problems. Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum.
McDonald, R. P., & Ho, M. H. R. (2002). Principles and practice in reporting structural equation analyses. Psychological Methods, 7, 64–82.
Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2010). Mplus user’s guide (6th ed.). Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.
Olino, T. M., Yu, L., Klein, D. N., Rohde, P., Seeley, J. R., Pilkonis, P. A., et al. (2012). Measuring depression using item response theory: an examination of three measures of depressive symptomatology. International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 21, 76–85.
Pilkonis, P. A., Choi, S. W., Reise, S. P., Stover, A. M., Riley, W. T., & Cella, D. (2011). Item banks for measuring emotional distress from the patient-reported outcomes measurement information system (PROMIS®): depression, anxiety, and anger. Assessment, 18, 263–283.
Radloff, L. S. (1977). The CES-D scale: a self-report depression scale for research in the general population. Applied Psychological Measurement, 1, 385–401.
Reise, S. P., & Waller, N. G. (1990). Fitting the two-parameter model to personality data: the parameterization of the multidimensional personality questionnaire. Applied Psychological Measurement, 14, 45–58.
Roberts, R. E., Lewinsohn, P. M., & Seeley, J. R. (1991). Screening for adolescent depression: a comparison of depression scales. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 30, 58–66.
Rush, A. J., Trivedi, M. H., Ibrahim, H. M., Carmody, T. J., Arnow, B., Klein, D. N., et al. (2003). The 16-item quick inventory of depressive symptomatology (QIDS), clinician rating (QIDS-C), and self-report (QIDS-SR): a psychometric evaluation in patients with chronic major depression. Biological Psychiatry, 54, 573–583.
Samejima, F. (1969). Estimation of latent ability using a response pattern of graded scores. Psychometrika Monograph Supplement, No. 17.
Santor, D. A., Zuroff, D. C., Ramsay, J. O., Cervantes, P., & Palacios, J. (1995). Examining scale discriminability in the BDI and CES-D as a function of depressive severity. Psychological Assessment, 7, 131–139.
Shrout, P. E., & Fleiss, J. L. (1979). Intraclass correlations: uses in assessing rater reliability. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 420–428.
Steele, R. G., Little, T. D., Ilardi, S. S., Forehand, R., Brody, G. H., & Hunter, H. L. (2006). A confirmatory comparison of the factor structure of the children’s depression inventory between European American and African American youth. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 15, 773–788.
Steiger, J. H. (1990). Structural model evaluation and modification: an interval estimation approach. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 25, 173–180.
Thissen, D., Chen, W.-H., & Bock, R. D. (2003). MULTILOG 7 for windows: Multiple-category item analysis and test scoring using item response theory [computer software]. Lincolnwood: Scientific Software International, Inc.
Twenge, J. M., & Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (2002). Age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, and birth cohort difference on the children’s depression inventory: a meta-analysis. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 578.
Uher, R., Farmer, A., Maier, W., Rietschel, M., Hauser, J., Marusic, A., et al. (2008). Measuring depression: comparison and integration of three scales in the GENDEP study. Psychological Medicine, 38, 289–300.
Yu, L., Buysse, D. J., Germain, A., Moul, D. E., Stover, A., Dodds, N. E., et al. (2011). Development of short forms from the PROMIS™ sleep disturbance and sleep-related impairment item banks. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 10, 6–24.
Acknowledgments
The present work was supported by K01 MH092603 (TMO) and R01 MH40501 (PML). The authors have no other financial disclosures. The authors report no conflicts of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Olino, T.M., Yu, L., McMakin, D.L. et al. Comparisons Across Depression Assessment Instruments in Adolescence and Young Adulthood: An Item Response Theory Study Using Two Linking Methods. J Abnorm Child Psychol 41, 1267–1277 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-013-9756-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-013-9756-6