Reliability and validity of the Beck Depression Inventory for a white and Mexican-American gerontic population

Scores on the Beck Depression Inventory from 51 white and Mexican-American gerontic subjects (M age = 70.2 yr.) gave an internal consistency coefficient of .80, so reliability was satisfactory. A parallel validity paradigm yielded a significant product-moment coefficient of .79. No significant mean differences emerged for sex of respondents or for ethnic groups, contributing support for use of Beck's scale with aging minority groups. Beck's scale appears reliable and valid for use in written self-report applications.