Race, ethnicity, and depression: a confirmatory analysis

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Epidemiology
• Sociology

Background:

• Depression assessment tools may exhibit bias across diverse populations.
• Understanding racial/ethnic group differences in mental health is crucial for equitable care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the psychometric equivalence of depressive symptom scales across racial/ethnic groups.
• To investigate mean differences in depression and well-being factors among these groups.

Main Methods:

• Utilized confirmatory factor analysis on community survey data from Los Angeles County.
• Analyzed interviews from four distinct racial/ethnic groups: Anglos, blacks, and Hispanic subgroups.
• Tested one-factor and two-factor models of depression to assess structural invariance.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated an invariant factor pattern, indicating scale equivalence across groups.
• Found no significant mean differences in the underlying depression factor.
• Observed significant mean differences between groups on a well-being factor.

Conclusions:

• Current depressive symptom scales appear equally indicative of depression across diverse racial/ethnic groups.
• Racial/ethnic disparities exist in well-being, not necessarily in the core depressive disorder.
• Findings have implications for improving survey research on psychiatric impairment in multicultural contexts.