Although social support for patients with chronic illnesses buffers the detrimental impacts of stress, if it is not provided appropriately, it can be a source of stress. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Korean version of the Contextual Illness Support Scale (K-CISS) for patients with rheumatoid disease.

A cross-sectional survey containing measures on social support, depression, anxiety, and quality of life was conducted with patients with rheumatoid disease (N=323).

The construct validity was supported by the results of the exploratory structural equation modeling, confirming the original two-factor model (positive and problematic support) and significant correlations between these two factors and health-related variables (i.e., depression, anxiety, and quality of life). The concurrent validity was supported by the significant positive correlation between positive and social support that was measured by the Korean version of the DUKE-UNC functional social support questionnaire. The internal consistency of the K-CISS was satisfactory, with Cronbach’s α values of .96 and .72 for the subscales.

These results suggest that K-CISS is a reliable and valid measure of two aspects of social support.

The purpose of this study is to develop a short form of the normal depression scale for individual use in the school, health, industry, organization, and counseling settings, based on the original normal depression scale (17 items).

To achieve this purpose, we selected five items from the original test and analyzed data using Mplus 7.4 and SPSS 21.0.

The normal depression scale-short form consists of 5 items. The reliability of the short form (test-retest reliability) was good. The content validity and internal structure validity (1 factor model) were verified. The cut score between normal and dysfunctional depression was determined to be 18.

The normal depression scale-short form for individual screening is verified to have good reliability and validity, so it is expected to be useful to perform quick screening of normal depression in the practical settings.

The purpose of this study is to develop the Korean dysfunctional depression submodule scales, which are composed of hwa-byung, mood dysregulation, female depression, anxiety, spouse conflict and suicidal risk.

To achieve this purpose, we developed preliminary items of six submodules through the theoretical approach and experiential approach. Then we collected data from professionals and para-professionals in mental health area (n=407) and 275 data were used to analyzed. Correlation with criterion, item information function, item-total correlation, and explorative factor analysis are performed using Mplus 7.4 and SPSS 21.0.

6 submodules of the Korean dysfunctional depression are composed of 8 items for Hwa-byung, 7 items for mood dysregulation, 7 items for female depression, 7 items for anxiety, 7 items for spouse-conflict and 9 items for suicidal risk. Reliability of submodules are .84∼.93.

These submodules of the Korean dysfunctional depression scale are verified to have high reliability and expected to be useful to assess the specific and various features of the dysfunctional depression.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate the Korean dysfunctional depression scale, which measures pathological depression including subclinical depression and clinical depression.

To achieve this purpose, we collected data from patients diagnosed as having depressive disorder and clients with chief complaints related to depression, and 360 data were analyzed.

Using item linkage methods, we decided 20 items as a dysfunctional depression scale for group research. The results of reliability verification show high internal consistency and stable test-retest reliability. In addition, the result of factor validity demonstrates general factor and two specific factors-the first specific factor is ‘the physical-somatic factor’ and the second specific factor is ‘the pessimistic cognition and alienation factor’. Convergent validity was also confirmed good. Lastly, this study performed standard setting workshop consisting of content experts to decide cut-scores of dysfunctional depression scale. Through the workshop, the standard cut-score of normal-subclinical depression was decided as 44 and the standard cut-score of subclinical-clinical depression was decided as 58. The classification consistency and accuracy indices were to validate standard cut-scores.

This Korean dysfunctional depression scale is verified to have high reliability and validity.