Objective: This study examines the reliability and validity of the Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) and Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (SMFQ) for measuring depression in New Zealand help-seeking adolescents.
Method: A sample of 183 adolescents completed the 33-item MFQ, which includes all 13 items on the SMFQ, at three time points during a trial of a computerized intervention for depression.
Results: Both the MFQ and SMFQ demonstrated good to excellent Cronbach's alphas, moderate to strong item-total score correlations, moderate to strong correlations with quality of life and anxiety measures, and strong correlations with the clinician-rated Children's Depression Rating Scale-Revised and the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale 2 at all time points, indicating good reliability and content, convergent, and concurrent validities, respectively. Favoring sensitivity over specificity, the optimal cut-off value for differentiating depressed from nondepressed cases for the MFQ was ≥28 and for the SMFQ was ≥12. Both instruments demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic accuracy and sensitivity to change.
Conclusion: The MFQ and SMFQ are free and simple instruments that can be used to identify depression and measure symptom change in New Zealand help-seeking adolescents.
Keywords: adolescent; assessment; depression; mood and feelings questionnaire; validation.
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