Longitudinal Measurement Invariance of the Korean Version of the CES-D-11 Scale

The present study examined the longitudinal measurement invariance of the Korean version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression (CES-D) scale. For this purpose, two datasets from the Korean Welfare Panel Study were analyzed. Study 1 examined the data from the first four waves to determine the scale’s short-term longitudinal invariance. Study 2 extracted data every 3 years up to the 10th year, beginning with the first wave (waves 1, 4, 7, and 10) to examine the scale’s long-term longitudinal invariance. We analyzed 10,098 cases in Study 1 and 7,077 cases in Study 2. The results of Study 1 revealed that the scale had strict or residual measurement invariance, whereas the results of Study 2 indicated that the scale had strong or scalar measurement invariance. Overall, the Korean version of the CES-D-11 scale was shown to be a valid measure of depression that can be used to evaluate symptom changes over time.