Depression Assessment

This chapter provides an overview of the assessment of depression in children and adolescents. First, we briefly review prevalence rates and discuss the developmental course of depression in youth. Next, we describe risk factors for depression, including familial and genetic risk, biological factors, cognitive risk factors, temperament, negative life events and stress generation, and interpersonal influences, given that understanding of risk factors is useful for case conceptualization and diagnostic considerations. This is followed by a discussion of general considerations for the assessment of depression in children and adolescents, including developmental considerations, types of measures, informant reports, categorical versus dimensional approaches, assessment of suicidality, and diversity and cultural considerations. Finally, we provide an overview of commonly used, evidence-based measures to assess depression in youth, including diagnostic interviews, rating scales, and questionnaires. Administration considerations and psychometric properties of each measure are described to provide a range of options from which clinicians and researchers can choose.