Members of the ARCH Lab recently published a paper titled “Measurement Invariance of the GAD-7 and CESD-R-10 Among Adolescents in Canada” in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

The primary objective of was to assess if the 7-item Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) and 10-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Revised (CESD-R-10) scales were interpreted in the same way by youth of different ages and sex in a sample of 9,052 adolescents in Year 7 (2018-19) of the COMPASS school-based study in Canada.

Results showed both the GAD-7 and CESD-R-10 demonstrated strict measurement invariance by sex and grade in the sample. Mean scale scores were higher among adolescents in grade 12 compared to grade 9 and among female adolescents compared to males.

Findings support the validity of the GAD-7 and CESD-R-10 for screening risk of generalized anxiety and depression among Canadian adolescents, and further indicate that differences observed in scale scores across subgroups reflect actual differences in risk for generalized anxiety and major depression, respectively.