Taking Items Out of Context: Dimensional Shifts with the Short Form of the Beck Depression Inventory

Abstract

Two samples of students completed the short form of the Beck Depression Inventory under different conditions. One sample completed the items embedded within the full scale, while the other sample completed only the items in the short form. Identical methods of factor analysis produced different factor patterns for the two samples. For the embedded items, three interpretable factors were derived, and the first two factors resembled results of previous analyses of the long form. Analysis of the other sample produced three new factors, indicating that the short form may be measuring different dimensions than the long form.