Validation of Depression and Anxiety Measures in White and Black Youths: Multitrait-Multimethod Analyses

The authors obtained yearly self-report, peer nomination, and teacher rating assessments of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and social acceptance on 2 cohorts of African American ( n s = 139 and 184) and Caucasian school children ( n s = 328 and 339), yielding a total of 6 waves of data between 3rd and 8th grade. Confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the measures manifested significant convergent and discriminant validity in both groups. Multigroup analyses further demonstrated that the measures were equally valid across ethnic groups. Peer nomination measures of depression and anxiety symptoms were biased, however, leading to the underestimation of psychopathology in African American children and adolescents. Allowing for this bias, the authors discovered that African American children evinced more signs of depression and anxiety in Grades 3, 4, and 5 than did Caucasian children. Such differences were not significant in Grades 6, 7, and 8. No ethnic group differences emerged on the social acceptance dimension.