Discriminative validity and interpretability of the mood and feelings questionnaire.

Background: Using the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) to differentiate between depression severity levels remains unexplored. We explored the discriminative validity of the MFQ to identify an optimal cut-off MFQ score to distinguish between subthreshold-to-mild and moderate-to-severe depression severity levels.

Methods: An observational cross-sectional design was used in a sample (N = 67) of help-seeking youth (ages 13 to 18, inclusive) experiencing depressive symptoms.