Cultural expressions of depression and the development of the Indonesian Depression Checklist
Abstract
Depression may manifest differently across cultural settings, suggesting the value of an assessment tool that is sensitive enough to capture these variations. The study reported in this article aimed to develop a depression screening tool for Indonesians derived from ethnographic interviews with 20 people who had been diagnosed as having depression by clinical psychologists at primary health centers. The tool, which we have termed the Indonesian Depression Checklist (IDC), consists of 40 items. The tool was administered to 125 people assessed to have depression by 40 clinical psychologists in primary health centers. The data were analyzed with Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) (IBM SPSS AMOS Software). CFA identified a five-factor hierarchical model ( χ 2 = 168.157, p = .091; CFI = .963; TLI = .957; RMSEA = .036). A 19-item inventory of the IDC, with five factors – Physical Symptoms, Affect, Cognition, Social Engagement and Religiosity – was identified. There was a strong correlation between the total score of the IDC and total score of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale (revised version CES-D), a standard tool for assessing symptoms of depression. The IDC accommodates culturally distinctive aspects of depression among Indonesians that are not included in the CES-D.
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Prior to the development and implementation of such interventions, numerous barriers including culturally sensitive screening of perinatal psychological distress need to be addressed.
“However, prior to the development and implementation of such interventions, numerous barriers including culturally sensitive screening of perinatal psychological distress need to be addressed (Widiana et al., 2018).”
From Developing and validating the Sierra Leone perinatal psychological distress scale through an emic-etic approach (2025) · cites this paper as Widiana et al., 2018
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- Authors
- Widiana, H. S., Simpson, K., & Manderson, L.
- Affiliations
- Universitas Ahmad Dahlan (ID)
- Monash University (AU)
- University of the Witwatersrand (ZA)
- Corresponding author
- Widiana, Herlina Siwi
- Venue
- Transcultural Psychiatry
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-04-10
- Volume
- 55
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 339-360
- ISSN
- 1363-4615 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7471
- OpenAlex
- W2797060064
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 4 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 2 · 2018: 1
- FWCI
- 1.64
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Transcultural Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Indonesia Endownment Fund for Education (20130722080077)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Mental Health Treatment and Access
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Psychometric Methodologies and Testing
- Keywords
- depression, depression screening, cross-cultural assessment, Indonesian people, CES-D, factor structure, somatic symptoms, religiosity, social engagement, affect, cognition
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Humans, Indonesia, Psychiatric Status Rating Scales, Psychometrics, Checklist
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