Confirming the Factor Structure for the Children's Depression Inventory 2nd Edition in Gender Expansive Youth

Rates of depression are significantly higher in transgender and gender expansive (TGE) youth than in cisgender youth. The Minority Stress Model theorizes that this disparity is due to the social difficulties that TGE youth face due to this minority status, such as family rejection or pressure to conceal their identity. Given the high incidence of depression in TGE youth, it is imperative to use a valid and reliable measure of depression for these youth.

This study sought to validate the latent factor structure of the youth self-report and caregiver-report of the Children's Depression Inventory Second Edition (CDI-2) in TGE youth.

This study examined depression in a sample of 182 TGE youth ages 10-17 who presented for gender-related services at a pediatric gender clinic. Multiple Confirmatory Factor Analyses were conducted of the youth self-report and caregiver-report CDI-2. Measure correlations and demographic differences were also analyzed.

The factor structure proposed by the measure authors was not a good fit for our data. One-factor models showed the best fit for TGE youth. Youth self-report and caregiver-report of the CDI-2 were statistically significantly positively associated. Youth assigned female at birth were found to have higher self-reported depression than youth assigned male at birth.

Results suggest clinicians and researchers should use CDI-2 total scores instead of subscale scores and that further research is needed to validate the CDI-2 in both cisgender and TGE samples.