Adaptation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II into Turkish Sign Language for Deaf Adults in Türkiye

D/deaf individuals face higher rates of psychological issues like depression, anxiety, and trauma than the general population. However, tools to assess depressive symptoms in this group are limited. This study aimed to adapt the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) to Turkish D/deaf culture using Turkish Sign Language (TİD). Five bilingual experts translated the scale, followed by a pre-trial with two D/deaf individuals and a pilot study with 40 D/deaf adults. Internal consistency was high: Cronbach's alpha was .884 for the TİD version and .879 for the Turkish version. Item 10 showed low item-total correlation and was slightly revised. A strong correlation between TİD and Turkish versions (r = .946, p < .01) confirmed language equivalence. Participant feedback helped refine clarity and usability. Findings indicate that this work represents a preliminary adaptation study, demonstrating initial reliability and linguistic equivalence of the BDI-II for Turkish D/deaf adults. These results should be interpreted as early evidence, and further research is needed to establish construct validity and broader psychometric properties.