The Chinese version of the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale: Longitudinal psychometric syntheses with 10-year cohort multi-center evidence in an adult sample

Objective

To evaluate cross-sectional (CMI), longitudinal (LMI), and cross-measurement invariance (C-LMI) of the Chinese version of the 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8) and reconfirm other properties for measuring depression construct.

Methods

11,479 Chinese adults from China Family Panel Studies were enrolled and randomly split into two halves. The exploratory half was used to reidentify the structures of the CES-D 8 by bootstrap exploratory graph analysis (bootEGA) and the confirmatory half was used to compare and choose the structure by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Results

The original two-factor model was found satisfactory as the solution for the Chinese CES-D 8 because of the relatively best fit. The CMI, LMI, and C-LMI were supported within groups of gender, age, marital status, and time with indices that have met the expectations. The Chinese CES-D 8 also showed sufficient internal consistencies with Cronbach's alpha valuing 0.795–0.868 and McDonald's omega valuing 0.850–0.870.

Conclusions

The CES-D 8 presents sufficient psychometric syntheses for assessing depressive symptoms to adulthood. These results demonstrate adequate measurement invariances and can be reliably used at different genders, ages, and long-term time points in Chinese cultural backgrounds.