Reliability and Validity of the Chinese Version of the Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R)

Background/Objectives: The Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised (CDRS-R) is a well-established tool to evaluate depressive symptoms in adolescents, yet its psychometric properties in China have not been thoroughly validated. The present research aimed to assess the Chinese version of the CDRS-R in adolescents from China. Methods: This study included 360 adolescents: 180 were diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD) and 180 were healthy controls (HCs). Internal consistency, convergent validity, and factor structure were evaluated, while receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was employed to establish cutoff scores. Results: The Chinese CDRS-R demonstrated high internal reliability (Cronbach's α = 0.966) and strong correlations with related measures, confirming its convergent validity. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the original four-factor structure. ROC analysis indicated that the optimal cutoff score for diagnosing MDD was 48, effectively distinguishing MDD from HCs. Conclusions: The findings confirm that the Chinese CDRS-R is a reliable instrument for assessing depressive symptoms in Chinese adolescents, making it suitable for both clinical and research purposes.