Evaluation of the CES-D Scale factor structure in a sample of second-generation Arab-Americans Mona M. Amer* a , Germine H. Awad b and Joseph D. Hovey c a Psychology Unit, The American University in Cairo, New Cairo, Egypt; b Department of Educational Psychology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA; c Department of Psychology, The University of Toledo, Toledo, USA (Received 24 December 2011; final version received 29 April 2012) Very few studies have examined the psychometric properties of mental health measures for use with the immigrant Arab American population, and fewer still have evaluated measures for use with the second generation. The present study evaluated the reliability and factor structure of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). A total of 119 second-generation Americans of Arab descent completed the instrument on a Website. Cronbach’s alpha was high, at .90. Principle components factor analysis yielded a three-factor solution in which emotional and physiological symptoms overlapped in one factor. These results are consistent with many other studies of ethnic minority immigrants, which report that affective and somatic symptoms were not experienced as separate. They are also consistent with research on the somatiza- tion of depression among Arabs living in the Middle East. However, the results challenge assumptions that as a result of the acculturation process, children of immigrants will experience depression more similar to the mainstream population rather than immigrants. Additionally, more than 40% of participants reported scores above the cut-off for clinically significant depression. Further research is needed to determine a more accurate cut-off score and identify the causes for the high self-reported depression. Keywords: depression; Arab American; CES-D; second-generation; ethnic minority; factor analysis Introduction In recent years, researchers have documented a risk for depression among Arab Americans, a group defined by their ethnic heritage from the Arabic-speaking nations in North Africa and Middle East. For example, when compared to Chaldeans and African Americans in Southeastern Michigan, Arab Americans reported the highest rate of depressive symptoms, at 23% (Jamil et al., 2008). Similarly, Amer and Hovey (2012) found rates of depression among Arab Americans to be higher compared to other ethnic groups, and nearly 50% of their Arab American respondents met the criteria for clinical caseness for depression. In another study of 350 mostly immigrant Arab and Muslim Americans, an astounding 61% met clinical caseness for depression (Abu-Ras & Abu-Bader, 2009). *Corresponding author. Email: monaamer75@gmail.com International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, 2014 Vol. 7, No. 1, 4658, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17542863.2012.693514 # 2012 Taylor & Francis Downloaded by [University of Texas Libraries], [Catherine Hamer] at 07:16 12 June 2014