Overview
The Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) is a standardized self-report questionnaire used to assess symptoms of depression in children and adolescents, typically those between about 7 and 17 years of age. Developed as an age-appropriate measure, it asks young people to rate statements describing how they have felt and behaved over a recent period, covering areas such as mood, self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, and the ability to function and enjoy activities. The instrument yields a total score reflecting the overall severity of depressive symptoms, along with subscales that describe particular aspects of a child's experience, and it is widely used in clinical assessment, screening, and research. As a structured tool, the CDI helps clinicians and researchers identify children who may be experiencing depression, gauge symptom severity, and monitor change over time or in response to treatment, while recognizing that it complements rather than replaces a full clinical evaluation. Its value depends on careful, age-sensitive interpretation alongside other sources of information about the child. Within the field of depression and therapy, validated rating scales such as the CDI are essential for measuring mood disorders consistently across individuals and settings. This page gathers peer-reviewed, open-access research relevant to the assessment of depression and the use of measurement tools in mental health.
Research published in this journal
5 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.
How this research is being cited
The 5 articles above have been cited 31 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.
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2025 · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
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2025 · Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment
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2024 · International Psychogeriatrics
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Myung Ki et al. · 2024 · International Psychogeriatrics
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2024 · American Journal of Kidney Diseases
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2023 · Comprehensive Psychiatry
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2023 · Comprehensive Psychiatry
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2023 · American Journal of Kidney Diseases
A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Children's Depression Inventory, linking to each citing work.