Research article
The Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS): a validation study
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* Corresponding author: Anne Revah-Levy anne.revah-levy@ch-argenteuil.fr
1 INSERM U669, Université Paris Sud 11, Centre Hospitalier V. Dupouy, 95107 Argenteuil, France
2 Department of Child Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, Pittsburgh, USA
3 INSERM U669, Université Paris-sud 11, APHP, Villejuif, F-94804, France
BMC Psychiatry 2007, 7:2 doi:10.1186/1471-244X-7-2
Published: 12 January 2007Abstract
Background
To examine the psychometric properties of the Adolescent Depression Rating Scale (ADRS), a new measure was specifically designed to evaluate adolescent depression.
Methods
The 11-item clinician-report and 44-item self-report versions of the ADRS were developed from a qualitative phase involving interviews of experts and adolescents. These two instruments were then administered to 402 French speaking adolescents with and without depressive disorders. Item distribution, internal consistency, convergent validity, discriminant validity and factorial structure were assessed.
Results
After reduction procedures, a 10-item clinician version and a 10-item self-report version were obtained. The ADRS demonstrated good internal consistency (alpha Cronbach coefficient >.70). It also discriminated better between adolescents with and without depression than the Hamilton Depressive Rating Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-13).
Conclusion
The ADRS is a useful, short, clinician-report and self-report scale to evaluate adolescent depression. Further studies to replicate our findings and evaluate ADRS sensitivity to effects of treatment and psychometric properties in populations of adolescents with several psychiatric disorders are warranted.