DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEPRESSION COPING SELF-EFFICACY SCALE.
Contributors: University of Illinois at Chicago.
Published: 1996
Number of pages: 122
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Mental Health.; Psychology, Psychometrics.; Psychology, Cognitive.
Description: Bandura's self-efficacy theory guided this study undertaken to derive and test an instrument with which to measure depression coping self-efficacy. Symptoms of depression as defined by the DSMIV served to organize items drawn from the universe of cognitive and behavioral coping tasks in the literature and from suggestions made by expert psychiatric nurses. The items were pilot tested with psychiatric day hospital patients.

The resulting 56-item scale (the Depression Coping Self-Efficacy Scale (DCSES)) was given to 150 (42 male and 98 female) depressed psychiatric inpatients and day hospital patients along with the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Cronbach's alpha was.96, and correlations with depression scores were negative and significant ($-$.55, p $<$.001), providing initial construct validity. Test-retest reliability was done using 20 nondepressed volunteers and was acceptable (.84). Using item analysis procedures, including examination of the inverse correlation matrix, specific items were removed to shorten the scale and to reduce redundancy. Care was taken to retain items that were both prescriptive and specific enough to be taught to patients and to remove items that were less behaviorally specific. All original depression coping task categories were represented in the final version. The inverse correlation matrix was rerun on the research sample using the shortened scale, providing evidence that redundant items had been removed.

The revised 24-item DCSES was then given to 51 psychiatric patients. Alpha was.93 and correlation with the BDI was $-$.7338 (p $<$.001). The final version of the DCSES has proven to be reliable and valid, and is not difficult for the depressed inpatient to complete. Future studies need to be done to determine the position that self-efficacy occupies in the development and course of depression, including relapse. Studies are also necessary to determine the usefulness of the DCSES as an outcome measure for the success of cognitive-behavioral nursing milieus in treating depressed patients.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 57-04, Section: B, page: 2482.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO, 1996.

School code: 0799.