Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI)

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine

  • 79 Accesses

Synonyms

Depression

Definition

The Beck Depression Inventory is a 21-item multiple choice self-report inventory widely used measure of the presence and degree of depression in adolescents and adults.

The most recent version is the Beck Depression Inventory®-II (BDI®-II), constructed by Aaron T. Beck and colleagues (Beck et al. 1996a). The BDI®-II can be self-administered or verbally by a trained administrator, is validated for completion by 13- to 80-year-old individuals, and is available from http://www.pearsonassessments.com/HAIWEB/Cultures/en-us/Productdetail.htm?Pid=015-8018-370&Mode=summary. It has high test-retest reliability (Pearson r = 0.93) (Beck et al. 1996b). It also has high internal consistency (Alpha 0.91) (Beck et al. 1996a).

The BDI includes both cognitive and somatic symptoms of depression, unlike the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale which was developed for use with somatic illness patients, and therefore excludes somatic symptoms of depression to reduce...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Institutional subscriptions

References and Further Reading

  • Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., Ball, R., & Ranieri, W. (1996a). Comparison of Beck depression inventories – IA and II in psychiatric outpatients. Journal of Personality Assessment, 67(3), 588–597. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6703_13. Accessed 14 Apr 2011.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., Steer, R. A., & Brown, G. K. (1996b). Manual for the Beck depression inventory-II. San Antonio: Psychological Corporation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canals, J., Blade, J., Carbajo, G., & Domenech-Llaberia, E. (2001). The Beck depression inventory: Psychometric characteristics and usefulness in non clinical adolescents. European Journal of Psychological Assessment, 17, 63–68.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, William James College, Newton, MA, USA

    Jane Upton

Authors
  1. Jane Upton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jane Upton .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA

    Marc Gellman

Section Editor information

  1. School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Anna C. Whittaker

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Upton, J. (2019). Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In: Gellman, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_441-2

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-6439-6_441-2

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-6439-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference MedicineReference Module Medicine

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation