A Psychometric Investigation of the Standard and Short Form Beck Depression Inventory

Abstract

The reliability, validity, and factor structure of the standard 21-item and short 13-item forms of the Beck Depression Inventory were investigated for 42 male and 143 female college students. The internal consistency reliability was .82 for the standard form and .78 for the short form. The correlation between the standard and short form was .94. Both forms also correlated significantly with scores on the Zung Self-rating Depression Scale, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. The results support the use of the short form as a reliable and valid brief screening measure of depression.