The Measurement Quality of the Beck Depression-Inventory (BDI-II) in Different Clinical Samples: An Item Response Theory Analysis

Keller F, Kuehner C, Alexandrowicz RW, et al. Zur Messqualität des Beck-Depressionsinventars (BDI-II) in unterschiedlichen klinischen Stichproben. Zeitschrift für Klinische Psychologie und Psychotherapie . 2022.Background: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) is a self-report instrument for assessing the severity of depression. To date, publications on psychometric properties based on item response theory (IRT) are largely missing. Objective: To determine how high the measurement precision is across the latent trait and whether the item categories are in ascending order. Methods: Using six large data sets from different clinical settings, we performed psychometric analyses using the graded response model. Results: We identified high internal consistencies in all samples. Apart from item 6 ("penalty feelings"), all categories were ordered. According to the Test Information Function, the BDI-II shows very good measurement precision (reliability > .90) in the moderate to high depression range, and good precision in the lower range. Conclusions: Our data revealed high and relatively stable measurement precision across a broad range of the depression construct. We consider the BDI-II to be welt suited for assessing depression severity levels, particularly in clinical but also in nonclinical settings