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Children's Depression Inventory

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Children’s Depression Inventory Jessica Fonville Psychological Tests and Measurements January 18, 2011 Children’s Depression Inventory The Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI) is an inventory used in testing for affective, cognitive, and behavioral depression in children ages seven to seventeen (Frey, 2003). The inventory is self-reporting, making it a popular method because it is inexpensive and easy. The inventory is also quick to administer, interpret, and score. The inventory is administered by certain qualified individuals and in particular settings in which the measure would be appropriate to use. The measure is only valid in particular populations. The use of the CDI in testing for childhood depression is discussed in two …show more content…

Users and Settings of Children’s Depression Inventory The Children’s Depression inventory was created by Maria Kovacs, Ph.D. as a self-reporting symptom-oriented scale to evaluate not only the existence of depressive symptoms in children, but also the severity of such symptoms (Multi-Health Systems Inc., 2003). As such, the CDI self-report tool is meant to rate the presence of symptoms for further assessment rather than be used as the sole diagnostic tool for clinical depression. The CDI measures five factors including self-esteem, mood, ineffectiveness, relational problems, and anhedonia or loss of pleasure (Multi-Health Systems Inc., 2003). The CDI is commonly used as a screening procedure in a number of clinical and non-clinical settings; schools, special education, outpatient or inpatient clinics, guidance centers, child psychiatric, and medical pediatric settings (Multi-Health Systems Inc., 2003). Administration and scoring of the CDI can be handled by educational, medical, psychiatric, and other qualified professionals. According to Dr. Kovacs and the Multi-Health Systems Incorporated (2003) website, the use and analysis of results from the CDI requires a B-level qualification, meaning that the administrator has completed university level test and measurement courses or obtained comparable and documented training. The two articles chosen by Learning Team C evaluated the use of the CDI self-inventory measurement and its effectiveness as a diagnostic tool

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