Exploratory and confirmatory factor validation and psychometric properties of the Beck Depression Inventory for Malays (BDI-Malay) in Malaysia

The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) has been shown to have good psychometric properties in Western and non-Western populations for the past 40 years. The present study reported on the factor structures and provided evidence of the psychometric properties of the BDI for the Malays in Malaysia. A total of 1090 Malays in four samples (students, general community, general medical patients, and patients with major depressive disorders) were recruited in this study. They completed a battery of questionnaires that included symptoms, cognition and quality of life measures. Twofactors of the BDI-Malay namely Cognitive/Affective and Somatic/Vegetative were extracted from Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) and were confirmed through Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Internal consistency (Cronbach’s α) ranging from = .71 to .91 and validity of the BDI-Malay were satisfactory. The BDI-Malay can be used with confidence as an instrument to measure levels of depression for Malays in Malaysia.