VALIDATION OF DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY MEASURES IN WHITE AND BLACK YOUTHS - MULTITRAIT-MULTIMETHOD ANALYSES

The authors obtained yearly self-report, peer nomination, and teacher rating assessments of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and socia l acceptance on 2 cohorts of African American (ns = 139 and 184) and C aucasian school children (ns = 328 and 339), yielding a total of 6 wav es of data between 3rd and 8th grade. Confirmatory factor analyses rev ealed that the measures manifested significant convergent and discrimi nant validity in both groups. Multigroup analyses further demonstrated that the measures were equally valid across ethnic groups. Peer nomin ation measures of depression and anxiety symptoms were biased, however , leading to the underestimation of psychopathology in African America n children and adolescents. Allowing for this bias, the authors discov ered that African American children evinced more signs of depression a nd anxiety in Grades 3, 4, and 5 than did Caucasian children. Such dif ferences were not significant in Grades 6, 7, and 8. No ethnic group d ifferences emerged on the social acceptance dimension.