Premium
The accuracy of teacher reports in the identification of middle school students with depressive symptomatology
Author(s) -
Auger Richard W.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
psychology in the schools
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.738
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 1520-6807
pISSN - 0033-3085
DOI - 10.1002/pits.10164
Subject(s) - psychology , depression (economics) , likert scale , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , economics , macroeconomics
This investigation examined the ability of teachers to identify depressive characteristics among middle school students. Participants were 356 students and 52 teachers. Teachers' perceptions of students' depressive characteristics were obtained via Likert ratings and nominations of students the teachers judged to be depressed. The depressive status of students was evaluated with a multiple‐gating procedure using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (Reynolds, 1987) as an initial measure and the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, Edition IV as a final measure. A correlation of .22 (p < .001) was obtained between teachers' ratings of student depression and students' self‐reported depressed moods. Further analyses examined teachers' ability to identify high‐depression students, as well as the impact of teacher and student variables on teachers' ability to discern students' depressed moods. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 379–389, 2004.