Nonparametric item analyses of the Beck Depression Inventory: Evaluating gender item bias and response option weights.

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mock, & Erbaugh, 1961), studies have documented its effectiveness as a self-report measure of depression (for a review, see Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988). These studies report on the effectiveness of the BDI within and between groups but do not examine the psychometric properties of the BDI as a function of the severity of depression within groups. Previous research reporting gender differences on the BDI has neither distinguished group mean differences from differences due to gender item bias (Thissen, Steinberg, & Gerrard, 1986) nor examined how such differences between men and women may vary as a function of depression. Furthermore, despite the large number of studies investigating the BDI, few studies have directly assessed the appropriateness of the weights assigned to response options. In this article, we use techniques based on item response theory to evaluate item performance as a function of the severity of depression as well as to examine gender item bias and the appropriateness of the weights assigned to response options in both depressed outpatient and nonpatient college samples. Items on the BDI consist of groups of graded statements, or options, reflecting different degrees of severity for the symptom domain assessed by that item. For each item there are four op

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