The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI)

If your child has been diagnosed with depression or will be evaluated for depression, you may have heard of the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI). The CDI is a tool that mental health professionals use to measure the cognitive, affective, and behavioral signs of depression in children and adolescents between the ages of 7 and 17.

CDI用于缩放严重程度depressive symptoms in children。It also differentiates between major depressive disorder and令人难以造算的障碍症in children and helps practitioners distinguish between these disorders and other psychiatric conditions.

Overview

The CDI was developed by Maria Kovacs in order to more easily diagnose depression in children. While depression is often thought of as an adult disorder, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that 4.9% of children between the ages of 6 and 17 have been diagnosed with depression.

CDI是在一年级阅读水平上写的自我报告评估，这意味着您的孩子将被录取纸张和铅笔评估来完成。用于识别儿童抑郁症的其他自我报告评估包括Beck抑郁库存（BDI）和Weinberg筛选情感规模（WSAS）。

CDI有两种形式：原始的27项版本，以及10项短窗版版本，需要5到15分钟才能完成。CDI旨在检测抑郁症的症状并区分抑郁症和其他精神病疾病。它也可以用作监测抑郁症状随时间变化的仪器。

行政

Each item in the CDI has three statements, and the child is asked to select the one answer that best describes their feelings over the past two weeks. There are five subscales within the assessment that measure different components of depression:

• anhedonia（无能或减少体验快乐的能力）
• Ineffectiveness (lack of motivation or inability to complete tasks)
• 人际关系（难度制作和保持密切关系）
• Negative mood (irritability or anger)
• 消极的自尊（对你不好的信念）

CDI部分是流行的，因为它很容易管理和得分。具有年龄适当的阅读能力的孩子可以相对较快地完成比例。

可靠性

CDI具有出色的心理测量性能，这意味着当使用时，它可以准确且可靠地测量儿童的抑郁症。然而，一些研究表明，测试不适合阅读困难的儿童。CDI在一个代表美国儿童人口的大型群体上进行了测试。

Research has also shown that the CDI (both the full version and short version) is a valid instrument when used for screening for depression in pediatric settings.然而，建议在儿科护理工作的医生跟进诊断评估，以排除潜在的误报。

Interpretation

只有在CDI的属性上训练的专业培训可以准确地解释结果。在测试中的原始得分基本上是毫无意义的，没有专业的解释，所以父母应该始终与评估孩子的专业人士讨论结果的含义。

你应该与你讨论后续评估child's doctor to determine the best course of为您的孩子进行治疗。较温和的症状可能会响应支持和自我保健，而更温和的症状可能需要其他治疗，例如药物或心理治疗。

限制

Like other self-report assessments used in children, the CDI is vulnerable to certain limitations. For example, because children don't have the same sophistication as adults related to understanding and reporting their emotions, their responses may not reflect their true emotional state.

In addition, children may be more likely than adults to attempt to give what they believe to be the desired answers rather than answers that represent their true feelings.

What Happens Next?

The CDI is a quick and painless depression assessment for your child. While any type of test is sure to make a child nervous, you can assure your child that there are no right or wrong answers.

抑郁症状往往在儿童和成人中波动。因此，测试的作者建议重新测试在初始测试后两到四周在CDI上获得正面分数的任何孩子。此外，应由持牌心理健康专业人员综合评估，收到CDI的正面评分的儿童。万博手机客户端

If you are concerned about depression in your child, it is important to consult with your child's pediatrician or other mental health professional. It is important that childhood depression is treated quickly.