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Original Articles

The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire

Published Online:March 28, 2007https://doi.org/10.1027/1015-5759.23.2.89

Abstract

Abstract. The Depressive Experiences Questionnaire (DEQ; Blatt, D'Aflitti, & Quinlan, 1976) is a self-report questionnaire designed to differentiate between dependency and self-criticism, two personality traits associated with increased risk for psychopathology in general and depression in particular. Over the years, different shortened versions of the DEQ have been constructed, attempting to offer an alternative for the complex scoring procedure of the original DEQ. In this article, the authors studied the factorial validity of the original DEQ and of six shortened versions in a student sample (N = 636) and in a clinical sample (N = 404) by means of confirmatory factor analysis. Furthermore, the construct validity of the different versions of the DEQ was studied by computing correlations with different types of depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems. Dependency was hypothesized to be associated with somatic depressive symptoms and with nonassertive, overly accommodating, and self-sacrificing interpersonal behavior; self-criticism would be associated with cognitive depressive symptoms and with vindictive, cold, and socially inhibited interpersonal behavior. In the present study, the reconstructed DEQ (Bagby, Parker, Joffe, & Buis, 1994) demonstrated the best psychometric properties. This factor model showed good fit to student and clinical (raw as well as ipsatized) data. Furthermore, intercorrelations between scores on dependency and self-criticism were adequately low (around .45) and the associations with different types of depressive symptoms and interpersonal characteristics were in line with theoretical predictions. Importantly, ipsatization of the DEQ scores was necessary to observe the hypothesized associations with depressive symptoms. Overall, the authors concluded that the reconstructed DEQ is a simple and valid scoring procedure with some important advantages compared to the more complex scoring procedures of the DEQ.

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