Longitudinal characteristics of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale

The internal structure of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression S cale was examined within the context of a three-year longitudinal study of 80 low-income parents of young children. The baseline, first-year, and seco nd-year follow-up home interviews included the scale. Principal components factor analyses with varimax rotation yielded six factors for the baseline data, and five factors for the follow-up data with different items loading on different factors each year suggesting some instability of the factors. Cronbach alpha estimates of the internal consistency of the original factor s showed satisfactory Values for Depressed Affect, Positive Affect, and pos sibly Somatic, but not for Interpersonal. However, alpha for the total scor e was very strong. Positive Affect and the total score also showed stabilit y over the three administrations. These results question the use of the ori ginal factor scores for the CES-Depression as subscales but support the use of the total score as a measure of depression.