A Multi-Informant Approach to Measuring Depressive Symptoms in Clinical Assessments of Adolescent Social Anxiety Using the Beck Depression Inventory-II: Convergent, Incremental, and Criterion-Related Validity

Abstract

Among adolescents, depressive symptoms commonly co-occur with social anxiety, with social anxiety often developmentally preceding depressive symptoms. Thus, evidence-based assessments of adolescent social anxiety should be augmented with assessments of depressive symptoms using measures that can be administered across developmental transitions (e.g., adolescence into adulthood). The widely used self-report measure, Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), was designed to assess depressive symptoms among adolescents and adults. Yet, scarce work exists on the psychometric properties of BDI-II self-reports among adolescents, and we know of no prior study that tested the properties of BDI-II parent reports. We examined the BDI-II within a mixed clinical/community sample of 89 adolescents and their parents, who each provided BDI-II reports about the adolescent. Further, adolescents completed self-reports and parents provided reports of adolescents on measures of adolescent trait social anxiety and other associated features of adolescent depressive symptoms (e.g., parent–adolescent conflict; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms). Adolescents self-reported their state arousal within a 20-min mock social interaction period. Parent–adolescent dyads displayed low-to-moderate correspondence between their BDI-II reports. Further, adolescents’ and parents’ BDI-II reports related to measures of associated features of adolescent depressive symptoms, and established cut scores on the BDI-II significantly distinguished adolescents on these same features. Adolescents’ BDI-II reports predicted adolescents’ self-reported arousal within social interactions and distinguished adolescents on referral status. Adolescents and parents can provide psychometrically sound reports on the BDI-II. These findings have important implications for evidence-based assessments of adolescent depressive symptoms, when clinically assessing adolescent social anxiety.