Psychometric properties of the Spanish-language child depression inventory with Hispanic children who are secondary victims of domestic violence.

The Child Depression Inventory (CDI), a self-report instrument that measures depressive symptomatology in children, has been shown to have adequate construct validity (Kovacs, 1983, 1992). However, limited research has been conducted with minority children and adolescents. In the present study, the construct validity of the Spanish-language version of the Child Depression Inventory (CDI-S) ages 8-12 years (N = 100). The CDI was developed by Maria Kovacs (1992) and has been a widely used instrument for screening depression in children. Fifty of the children had witnessed domestic violence (secondary victims of domestic violence) and received psychological services for victims of domestic violence, and fifty had not witnessed domestic violence. To identify the group of non-victims of domestic violence, their mothers completed the Conflict Tactic Scale (CIS). The CDI is a self-report instrument used to measure symptoms of depression. A confirmatory factor analysis was performed including the 27 items that make up the instrument, using principal component analysis as the extraction method and Varimax rotations. This analysis revealed that the CDI measures five dimensions of depression in the child. However, differences were found in the factor structure of the Spanish CDI when compared with the original version. Additionally, its internal consistency was documented.