ABSTRACT
Although the two previous applications focused on CFA first-order models, the present application examines a CFA model that comprises a second-order factor. As such, we test hypotheses related to the Beck Depression Inventory (Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961) as it bears on the nonclinical adolescent population. The example is taken from a study by Byrne, Baron, and Campbell ( 1993) and represents one of a series of studies that have tested for the validity of second-order BDI factorial structure for high school adolescents in Canada (Byrne & Baron, 1993, 1994; Byrne, Baron, & Campbell, 1993, 1994), Sweden (Byrne, Baron, Larsson, & Melin, 1995, 1996), and Bulgaria (Byrne, Baron, & Balev, 1996, 1998). Although the purposes of the Byrne et al. (1993) study were to cross-validate and test for an invariant BDI structure across gender for Canadian high school students, we focus only on factorial validity as it relates to the female calibration sample. (For further details regarding the sample, analyses, and results, readers are referred to the original article.)
The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a 21-item scale that measures symptoms related to cognitive, behavioral, affective, and somatic components of depression. Although originally designed for use by trained interviewers, it is now most typically used as a self-report measure. For each item, respondents are presented
with four statements rated from 0 to 3 in terms of intensity and are asked to select the one that most accurately describes their own feelings; higher scores represent a more severe level of reported depression. As noted in chapter 4, the CFA of a measuring instrument is most appropriately conducted with fully developed assessment measures that have demonstrated satisfactory factorial validity. Justification for CFA procedures in the present instance is based on evidence provided by Tanaka and Huba ( 1984 ), and replicated studies by Byrne and associates (already cited), that BDI score data are most adequately represented by an hierarchical factorial structure. That is to say, the first-order factors are explained by some higher order structure which, in the case of the BDl, is a single second-order factor of general depression.
