Assessing depressive symptoms across cultures: Italian validation of the CES-D self-rating scale

Although several self-rating scales for depression have been proposed in the past two decades, very few have been validated on non-English-speaking populations. The present study was carried out in northern Italy in order to examine the validity of the CES-D self-rating scale for depression in another language and culture. The scale was used with 40 depressives and 40 normals who were matched. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) was used as an additional test of concurrent validity. The results show that the CES-D is a valid measure in that it sensitively discriminates between depressed patients and normals and presents satisfactory correlations with the observer rating scale (HRSD) in both groups. The scale in its Italian translation is likely to be helpful in the assessment of depression of Italian immigrants in North America and Australia, especially in those whose English is poor.