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The latent structure of child depression: a taxometric analysis
Author(s) -
Richey J. Anthony,
Schmidt Norman B.,
Lonigan Christopher J.,
Phillips Beth M.,
Catanzaro Salvatore J.,
Laurent Jeff,
Gerhardstein Rebecca R.,
Kotov Roman
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02085.x
Subject(s) - anhedonia , psychology , categorical variable , depression (economics) , convergent validity , internal consistency , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychometrics , psychiatry , statistics , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , mathematics , economics , macroeconomics
Background: The current study examined the categorical versus continuous nature of child and adolescent depression among three samples of children and adolescents ranging from 5 to 19 years. Methods: Depression was measured using the Children’s Depression Inventory (CDI). Indicators derived from the CDI were based on factor analytic research on the CDI and included indices of: 1) social withdrawal, 2) anhedonia, 3) incompetence/maladjustment and 4) negative self‐esteem. Results: Taxometric procedures provided convergent support for the existence of a latent taxon across three independent samples. Internal and external consistency tests as well as Monte Carlo simulations supported the validity of the results. Conclusions: Multiple nonredundant procedures and samples were all consistently indicative of taxonicity in child depression.