| The purpose of this study was to assess the patterns of expression of depressive symptomatology in Chinese-American adults. The subjects were 91 bilingual volunteers (40 males and 51 females) from the San Francisco Bay Area. Each subject responded to four instruments and one questionnaire, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), a Chinese translation of the Beck Depression Inventory (C-BDI), the Chinese Depression Inventory (CDI), Suinn-Lew Asian Self Identity Acculturation Scale (SL-ASIA) and a demographic questionnaire. The instruments were administered in a randomized order on the same day to each subject.;Two issues were explored in this study: (a) How do the dimensions of depression differ with respect to the position of an instrument on the etic-emic continuum, and (b) what is the relative applicability of the BDI, C-BDI and the CDI, for the assessment of depression in Chinese Americans with respect to their level of acculturation. The methods utilized included factor analysis, internal consistency analysis, and item total correlations. The three instruments differed in several ways: The number of factors for the three tests were four, five, and three, respectively; the first BDI factor reflected a somatic dimension of depression, while the first C-BDI and CDI dimensions reflected an affective dimension; the factor loadings of items differed between the BDI and the C-BDI, as did the items on which each factor loaded for the two tests; the coefficient alphas for the BDI, C-BDI, and the CDI were.88,.86,.95, respectively. The CDI was noted to be most applicable for lesser acculturated subjects, and the BDI for the more acculturated subjects.;The results of the study are discussed in light of the etic-emic continuum. The findings have implications for test construction and validation with respect to cultural groups, for cross-cultural research, and for training mental health professionals. |
