The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D): Measurement equivalence across gender groups in Hispanic college students.
BACKGROUND
This study examined among Hispanic college students the factor structure and gender measurement invariance of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale. The CES-D's original 20 item four-factor model was compared to a recently proposed 14 item, three-factor model.


METHODS
Participants included 858 Hispanic undergraduates at an ethnically diverse, major research, urban, public university in the Southwest United States (U.S.). Multigroup confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) and structural equation modeling were used to examine the factor structure, gender invariance, and construct validity of the CES-D scores.


RESULTS
Multigroup CFAs provided support for full configural and metric invariance and partial scalar invariance for the three-factor model across gender groups. Two of the 14 items (#3 and #18) demonstrated different thresholds; women scored higher than men in both items. The pattern of latent correlations of the three depression factors to four stress variables (college academic, social, financial and discrimination stress) demonstrated configural, metric and scalar invariance across gender groups.


LIMITATIONS
About two thirds of the participants were women and most were of Mexican descent and had been born in the U.S. Therefore, findings may not generalize to more gender balanced samples and students from other Latin American countries or immigration generational status.


CONCLUSIONS
Partial scalar invariance in two items may not have a strong impact in the calculation of the overall depression score. Given evidence for functional invariance, results provide support for the use of the14-item, three-factor CES-D scale to assess depression symptoms among Hispanic college students.
['Arbona|Consuelo|C|', 'Burridge|Andrea|A|', 'Olvera|Norma|N|']
D000293:Adolescent D000328:Adult D000704:Analysis of Variance D003863:Depression D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical D005260:Female D006630:Hispanic or Latino D006801:Humans D008297:Male D011581:Psychological Tests D011594:Psychometrics D015203:Reproducibility of Results D017678:Sex Distribution D015206:Southwestern United States D013334:Students D014495:Universities D055815:Young Adult
CES-D Gender Hispanic Measurement invariance