Screening for depressive and anxiety disorders among adolescents in Indonesia: Formal validation of the centre for epidemiologic studies depression scale – revised and the Kessler psychological distress scale

Background: This study aimed to culturally verify and examine the empirical psychometric properties of the Indonesian versions of the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale – Revised (CESD-R), the Kessler Psychological Distress Scale – 10 items (K10) and a subset of 6 items of the K10, the K6 to detect depressive and anxiety disorders among older adolescents in Indonesia. Methods: The empirical psychometric properties were examined formally among students aged 16–18 years attending high schools in Jakarta. The scales were validated against the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview for Children and Adolescents (MINI-Kid) modules for major depressive episode, dysthymia, panic disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. Results: In total, 196 students contributed complete data. All of the scales had Cronbach's alpha >0.8. The areas under the ROC Curve of CESD-R against MINI depressive disorders and K10/K6 against MINI depressive and anxiety disorders were at moderate to high accuracy levels (0.78 to 0.86). The optimal cut-off value of CESD-R (scores ranging: 0–60) to screen for any depressive disorder is ≥20 (sensitivity 75.0%; specificity 79.9%). The optimal cut-off value of K10 to detect any depressive/anxiety disorders is ≥18 (sensitivity 85.7%; specificity 74.7%); and K6 is ≥12 (sensitivity 81.0%; specificity 76.6%); Limitations: The school-based sample limits the generalisability of the findings to this group. Conclusions: This study suggests that the CESD-R I is a useful tool for screening for depressive disorders and both the K10 I and K6 I are useful for screening for any depressive or anxiety disorders among Indonesian adolescents.