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The latent structure of child depression: a taxometric analysis
J Anthony Richey1, Norman B Schmidt, Christopher J Lonigan
1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA. Richey@psy.fsu.edu
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.
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