The development and psychometric investigation of the university student depression inventory

BackgroundDepression is prevalent among university students. It is debilitating and affects the academic performance of students. One of the most common reasons why students consult counselling centres is depression. Therefore it is important to assess the university students' depression by valid measures designed particularly for this purpose.MethodThe present study developed the “University Student Depression Inventory” (USDI) to measure the depressive symptoms of university students.ResultItems based on a broad range of depression symptoms were subjected to factor analysis, resulting in a 30 item scale with three subscales: Lethargy; Cognitive/Emotional; and Academic Motivation. Psychometric investigation revealed satisfactory reliability and divergent and convergent validity.ConclusionIt is expected that multidimensional USDI would be a useful tool for university counselling services to assess the depression of the students.