Psychometric characteristics of the Depressive Cognition Scale in African American women.

Depression in African-American women frequently goes unnoticed and untreated since commonly used depression scales fail to focus on early symptom recognition, do not address contextual factors, and lack adequate psychometric testing in African-American women. This analysis of the Depressive Cognition Scale was conducted with 213 African-American female caregivers and noncaregivers. Alpha coefficients for both groups (alpha 's = .75 and .87) showed internal consistency. Correlations with resourcefulness, depression, and daily hassles scales in the expected directions demonstrated construct validity (R's = -.36, .26, and .31, respectively). Factor structures for caregivers and noncaregivers differed, suggesting certain depressive cognitions were strongly integrated into the caregiver role. As a reliable and valid measure of depressive cognitions, the DCS would be useful for early detection of depression in African-American women.