The stability of depressed mood in young adolescents: a school-based survey.

To test the stability of self-reported depressed mood in a school-based sample of young adolescents, 268 schoolchildren completed two self-rating scales measuring depressed mood, the Depression Self Rating Scale and the Child Depression Inventory, at three timepoints over a period of 6 months. Depressed mood in the sample, as measured across the whole range of the scales, was reasonably stable. A subgroup of children was identified for whom the mean scores of both scales at all three timepoints was close to, or above, the cut-off points, representing a stably depressed mood similar to that found in clinical populations. The present findings indicate that depressed mood within a section of the general child population may be more stable and less transient than previously thought.