Rumination and Depression

The Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale. The Center of Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) is a 20-item self-report questionnaire that is used to assess the number of depressive symptoms that an individual may have experienced over the past week. Sample questions of the CES-D include “I was bothered by things that don’t usually bother me” and “My sleep was restless”. Participants were asked to rate each item on a 4-point Likert scale ranging from 0 (less than 1 day) to 3 (5-7 days). Total scores were calculated by reversing items 4, 8, 12, and 16, and then summing all 20 items together. Total scores ranges from 0 to 60, with higher scores indicating the experience of more severe depressive symptoms (Radloff, 1977). A score of 16 or higher indicates the experience of a clinical depressive disorder (Radloff, 1977).

The CES-D was originally developed and tested on a sample of 4,000 individuals within the general population and psychiatric settings (Radloff, 1977). Original evaluations of the CES-D displayed good discriminant validity between the general population and psychiatric inpatient samples. Researchers have also established excellent concurrent validity (Brantley, Mehan, & Thomas, 2000), criterion validity (Harringsma, Engels, Beckham, & Spinhoven, 2004) and construct validity (Cheung, & Bagley, 1998). Validity studies have demonstrated that the CES-D is not specific as a diagnostic tool for depression, but a measure of the severity of depressive symptoms (Fechner-Bates, Coyne, & Schwenk 1994). Studies of the CES-D in both community and psychiatric samples have demonstrated significant correlations with other measures of depression, such as the Beck Depression Inventory (Santor, Zuro...

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