Depression inventory for children and adolescents

The Depression Inventory for Children and Adolescents ( DIKJ for short ) is a psychological test to check the severity of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents. The inventory was developed by J. Stiensmeier-Pelster, M. Schürmann and K. Duda. The first edition appeared in 1989, the second revised edition in 2000. In 2014, the 3rd, revised and newly standardized edition was published.

background

In the Anglo-American region, a growing number of studies on the causes, course and treatment of depressive disorders in children and adolescents can be ascertained since the late 1970s. In the German-speaking countries, research in this regard was rather neglected. For this reason, no suitable measurement method for diagnosing depressive disorders in children and adolescents was available. Therefore, the authors developed the DIKJ based on the Kovacs Children's Depression Inventory (CDI).

construction

The DIKJ has 26 items , each item requiring a decision between three possible answers. The alternative answers indicate different manifestations of a symptom state. A value of zero indicates no symptoms, a value of one describes a moderate severity of the symptom, and a value of three is assumed to be severe. The order of the possible answers is arranged half in ascending or descending order.

application

The DIKJ was developed for children and young people between the ages of eight and sixteen. In exceptional cases, the age limit can vary upwards, depending on the cognitive and psychological maturity of the young person. No studies are available on the use of the inventory in children under eight years of age. Both individual and group tests are possible during implementation. It can be used for diagnosis, but also in conjunction with therapy. It should be noted that the test does not provide any information about whether a child or adolescent is depressed or not, but only about the severity of a depressive symptom, if a symptom is present.

Reliability and validity

The DIKJ is a reliable and valid measuring instrument. All items show sufficient to satisfactory, in some cases even very good selectivity . In children and adolescents who were psychopathologically conspicuous, however, a clearer degree of discrimination was found than in those who did not. The selectivity in older subjects was also better than in younger subjects. The DIKJ has been calibrated and has standard tables. This gives the test user the opportunity to interpret the test result of a test person against the background of a comparison group and to compare test results of different test persons with one another. A comparison with other standardized test procedures is also possible.

criticism

The easy comprehensibility of the items and the simple implementation of the test procedure are to be rated positively. The evaluation and classification of the test results in the corresponding standard tables are also easy and time-saving. However, whether this test instrument is actually suitable for being used in conjunction with therapy remains questionable.

The process is easy to understand with the sloping structure. So it would certainly be possible to respond according to social desirability and to manipulate the test with multiple repetitions. However, the DIKJ is a very useful measurement method to confirm a suspicion of a depressive disorder and to initiate clinical diagnostics when the suspicion is confirmed.

Comorbidity

Especially in children and adolescents, depressive disorders are often comorbid . According to studies, the most common pattern of comorbidity is depression combined with anxiety disorders. This is especially true for children. In adolescence, there are frequent combinations of alcohol, drug and tablet abuse. In addition, girls often experience eating disorders and boys have aggressive behavior. The Bremen youth study shows that more than half of all young people with depressive disorder have one or more other disorders.

Special features in children and adolescents

The prevalence of depression in children is around three percent, and around eighteen percent in adolescents. The symptoms are often difficult to recognize in children and adolescents because they are overlaid by behavior patterns typical of their age. This complicates the diagnosis. In adolescents, rebellion, defiant behavior, aggressiveness, negative body image and reluctance to attend school are often age-typical pubertal behavior, so depressive symptoms can easily be overlooked.

Younger children, on the other hand, are often unable to articulate what is bothering them. Often there are transfers into the somatic area. They complain more of stomach ache or headache. In addition, an excessive fear can often be observed in children (fear of separation of the parents, fear of the death of a family member, fear of being left alone, of being forgotten, of not being picked up; but also fear of the dark; animals, monsters, fear of punishment, fear of doing something wrong). As a result, children often have difficulty solving tasks and brooding over them for fear of doing them incorrectly.

Affected children are often plagued by extreme restlessness, which obscures the depressive symptoms.

It is therefore important to be very attentive, especially with children and adolescents, so as not to overlook or downplay the symptoms.

Individual evidence

↑ Stiensmeier-Pelster, J., Schürmann, M. & Duda, K. (2000). Depression inventory for children and adolescents (DIKJ). Manual (2nd, revised and new standard edition). Göttingen: Hogrefe.
↑ Essau, CA, Karpinski, NA, Petermann, F. & Conradt, J. (1998). Frequency, comorbidity, and psychosocial impairment of depressive disorders in adolescents: results of the Bremen youth study. Journal of Clinical Psychology , Psychiatry, and Psychotherapy , 46, 316-329.
^ Groen, G. & Petermann, F. (2008). Depressive disorders. In F. Petermann (Ed.), Textbook of Clinical Child Psychology (6th, fully revised edition, pp. 427–443). Göttingen: Hogrefe.