Description of Measure: The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a 21-item, self-report rating inventory that measures characteristic attitudes and symptoms of depression (Beck, et al., 1961). The BDI has been developed in different forms, including several computerized forms, a card form (May, Urquhart, Tarran, 1969, cited in Groth-Marnat, 1990), the 13-item short form and the more recent BDI-11 by Beck, Steer & Brown, 1996. (See Steer, Rissmiller & Beck, 2000 for information on the clinical utility of the BDI-11.) The BDI takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, although clients require a fifth – sixth grade reading level to adequately understand the questions (Groth-Marnat, 1990).

Beck Depression Inventory-II. San Antonio, TX: Psychological. Softros Lan Messenger Serial Key. Harcourt Assessment, Inc. 19500 Bulverde Road. San Antonio, Texas 78259. Phone: 1-800-211-8378. Fax: 1-800-232-1223 customer_service@harcourt.com www.harcourtassessment.com. The BDI-II is a widely used 21-item self-report.

Internal consistency for the BDI ranges from.73 to.92 with a mean of.86. (Beck, Steer, & Garbin, 1988).

Similar reliabilities have been found for the 13-item short form (Groth-Marnat, 1990). The BDI demonstrates high internal consistency, with alpha coefficients of.86 and.81 for psychiatric and non-psychiatric populations respectively (Beck et al., 1988). References Beck, A.T., Ward, C.