[Study of symptoms and structure of depressive mood in puberty using Kovacs' Child Depression Inventory]

This study is based on the German Language version "GCDI" of the "CDI" according to Maria KOVACS used in investigations on random selection of normal school population between the 7th and 9th grades (n = 130). The pupils ages ranged between 13 and 15 years. A second group was also used, made up of children of approximately the same age (n = 145) from a clinic. Among this second group, 58 suffered from clinical depression. The comparison provided a clear separation between the depressive patients and the normal random participants--and the GCDI/CDI total value = 20 was decided to the optimal separation value. Comparisons with the Canadian group of school pupils (n = 850) agreed well with the above. Follow-up examinations on the randomly selection of normal school population resulted in the detection of a lasting condition of depressive mood for 7 per cent of the participants. It is apparent, that for the clarification for the structure of depressive mood not only are the simple total scores necessary--but also a factor analysis of the 27 items. Four factors were detected: 1) primarily affective disturbance, 2) motivation and cognition disturbances, 3) contact disturbances, 4) disturbances in school performances and behavior. Under consideration of the Fürntratt criterium, 25 of the 27 items in the GCDI could classified into the four factors and achieve a significant correlation. GCDI is useful for international comparative investigations. Clinical use is possible too.