Adolescent depression: children's depression inventory norms, suicidal ideation, and (weak) gender effects

Normative data for the Children's Depression Inventory on 792 nonreferred students in Grades 7 through 12 were gathered. It was found that girls endorsed more depressive symptomatology than did boys at statistically significant levels, but the magnitude of the effect was trivial. More than one-third of the overall sample reported suicidal ideation. Although a significant gender effect was obtained, again the effect was weak in magnitude. It is suggested that effect-size analyses may advance understanding of normative research on depression.