Youth screening depression: Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in a representative sample of adolescents

Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero; Adriana Díez-Gómez; Alicia Pérez-Albéniz; Susana Al-Halabí; Beatriz Lucas-Molina; Martin Debbané

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115486

Youth screening depression: Validation of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in a representative sample of adolescents

Psychiatry Res. 2023 Oct:328:115486. doi: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115486. Epub 2023 Sep 16.

Authors

Eduardo Fonseca-Pedrero¹, Adriana Díez-Gómez², Alicia Pérez-Albéniz², Susana Al-Halabí³, Beatriz Lucas-Molina⁴, Martin Debbané⁵

Affiliations

¹ Universidad de La Rioja, Spain. Electronic address: eduardo.fonseca@unirioja.es.
² Universidad de La Rioja, Spain.
³ Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
⁴ Universidad de Valencia, Spain.
⁵ Developmental Clinical Psychology Research Unit, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Switzerland; Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London, United Kingdom.

PMID: 37738682
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2023.115486

Abstract

Background: Depression symptoms and mood disorders constitute one of the major public health challenges among youths. Thus, early prevention and intervention for depression should be a priority. The main goal of the present study was to validate the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) scores in a school-based sample of non-clinical adolescents.

Method: Stratified random sampling was conducted. Participants were 2235 students (M = 14.49, SD =1.76, range= 12-18 years), 52.9 % were female, from 34 secondary schools in Spain. Several previously validated self-reported questionnaires of mental health and psychopathology were administrated.

Results: The unidimensional factorial model of the PHQ-9 items showed adequate goodness of fit indices. Strong measurement invariance across gender was found. Omega for the PHQ-9 total score was 0.87. The PHQ-9 total score was positively associated with anxiety symptoms and emotional and behavioral problems, and negatively associated with prosocial behavior and quality of life.

Conclusions: The PHQ-9 is a brief, easy, and reliable tool for assessing self-reported depressive symptoms in both clinical and school settings. PHQ-9 may be used as a screening tool for universal early detection and monitorization of depression symptoms during adolescence.

Keywords: Adolescents; Depression; Mental health; PHQ-9; Psychometric; Validation.