A multisample item response theory analysis of the Beck Depression Inventory-1A.

The widespread employment of the Beck Depression Inventory-1A ({bdi}-1{a}) has spawned a number of practices: (1) The employment of an unweighted total score as a measure of depression; (2) Its use in populations other than that in which it was normed; and (3) The employment of {bdi}-1{a} total scores in hypothesis tests about population differences in mean depression. A sequential procedure based on item response theory was employed to assess the validity of these practices for the case of 4 populations: clinical depressives (n?=?210), mixed nondepressed psychiatric patients (n?=?98), and students from 2 different universities (n?=?624). The findings suggest that the 1st practice was not justified for any of these populations, that the {bdi}-1{a} was employable only with clinical depressives and with 1 of the university populations, and that mean comparisons were not allowable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)