Zeitschrift fur Medizinische Psychologie
Volume 9, Issue 4, 2000, Pages 157-165

Depression in elderly migrants: A transcultural evaluation of the German version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) (Article)

Krones T.* , Basler H.-D. , Zoll R.
  • a AG Ethikkommission, Zentrum für Innere Medizin, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany, Institut für Medizinische Psychologie, Zentrum für Methodenwissenschaften und Gesundheitsforschung, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
  • b Institut für Medizinische Psychologie, Zentrum für Methodenwissenschaften und Gesundheitsforschung, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
  • c Institut für Soziologie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany

Abstract

This explorative transcultural psychiatric field study deals with the intercultural validity and reliablility of a German 15 item version of the CES-D scale translated into four European languages. The sample consists of 310 elderly migrant workers of the first generation that remained living in Germany. It is of Italian (n = 89), Spanish (n = 89), Ex-Yugoslavian (n = 89) and Portuguese (n = 43) origin. The translated scales show good psychometric properties. In the complete sample, a principal component analysis extracts two factors, differentiating positive from depressive affect, thus corroborating solutions found in other transcultural studies. The analysis of the four nationalities, however, demonstrates differences regarding total scores, reliability coefficients and factorial structure. This indicates that a universal construct of depression may exist, but that different cultural backgrounds influence symptom formation. Prevalence rates of depressive symptomatology reach 30 % in the total sample and exceed by far those observed in the German population. © 2000 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserved.

Author Keywords

Depression Migration Epidemiology Transcultural psychology

Index Keywords

[No Keywords available]
Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85013621794&partnerID=40&md5=b1fe0208beff230214ae567e396f3140
ISSN: 09405569
Cited by: 1
Original Language: German