Factor structure of the German Beck Depression Inventory, Second Edition (BDI-II)

Background: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) has underwent a revision in 1996 (BDI-II) and has recently been published in German (Hautzinger et al., 2006). International studies on the factorial validity of the BDI-II suggest two highly intercorrelated factors. Objective: To evaluate the factorial structure of the German BDI-II. Methods: Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed with a clinical (depressed patients, n=266) and a nonclinical sample (n=582). Results: Exploratory analyses indicated the presence of two highly intercorrelated factors ("somatic-affective", "cognitive") in both subsamples. Confirmatory analyses showed that this two-factor model provided a better fit of the data than a one-factor model. Conclusions: In accordance with international studies investigating psychiatric and nonclinical nonstudent samples, we identified a two-factor structure of the BDI-II measuring cognitive and somatic-affective aspects of depression.