Critique: Beck Depression Inventory-II

You are a mental health counselor currently working in an outpatient counseling clinic with adult clients. You are considering whether or not to adopt the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) in your practice. Many of your clients seem to suffer from depression, and you think that using an instrument that specifically assesses depressive symptoms would help you in making an accurate diagnosis. You currently work 40 hours each week at the clinic and see about 20 clients each week for hour-long individual counseling sessions. The rest of your time is devoted to treatment planning, writing progress notes, staff meetings, and supervision.

Information about the BDI-II is located in Chapter 13. You are also provided with psychometric information below. After reviewing information about the BDI-II, answer the questions that follow.

Norm Group

Two samples were used to evaluate the psychometric characteristics of the BDI-II:

1. A clinical sample of 500 individuals who sought outpatient therapy at one of four outpatient clinics on the U.S. east coast (two of which were located in urban areas, two in suburban areas). The sample consisted of 317 (63%) women and 183 (37%) men, ranged in age from 13 to 86 years, and the average age was 37.2 years. The sample consisted of four racial/ethnic groups: White (91%), African American (4%), Asian American (4%), and Hispanic (1%).
2. A nonclinical sample of 120 Canadian college students was used as a comparative "normal" group. It consisted of 67 (56%) women and 53 (44%) men, was described as "predominantly White," and the average age of the sample was 19.58.

Reliability

Internal consistency: Analysis of internal consistency yielded a Cronbach's alpha of .92 for the clinical sample and .93.

Test-Retest Reliability: Test-retest reliability was assessed over a one week interval among a sub-sample of 26 outpatients from one clinic site (r = .93).

Validity

Content Validity: BDI-II item content was designed to be consistent with the diagnostic criteria for depression in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994).

Convergent Validity: Correlations between the BDI-II scores and other scales are as follows:the Beck Hopelessness Scale (r = .68), the Revised Hamilton Psychiatric Rating Scale for Depression (r = .71), and the Symptom Checklist-90-R Depression subscale (r = .89).

Discriminant Validity: The correlation between the BDI-II and the Revised Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale = .47. The correlation between the BDI-II and the Beck Anxiety Inventory .60.

Question:

5) Summarize the strengths and weakness of the inventory.

Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996). Manual for the Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological Corporation.