Depression is contemporary defined as a mood disorder, shown by a set of individual's signs, symptoms, behaviors and physiological manifestations. Among the related factors to developing and maintaining depression, there's family support, understood as manifestation of attention, care, dialog, freedom, affective proximity, autonomy and independence between family members. The present research aimed to search for validity evidences to Depression Scale (EDEP) based on the relation to other variables assessing the same construct, depression, being also assessed by Beck Depression Inventory - BDI, and assessing related constructs, family support, measured by Perception of Family Support Inventory - IPSF. 157 undergraduates from a private university located in south state of Minas Gerais, 75,5% from female gender and 24,5% from male gender, aging from 18 to 51 years old (M=23,2; DP=6,4) took part in this study. At the results, high, significant and positive correlations were found between EDEP and BDI, as expected, indicating that the higher the scores on both scales, higher the depressive symptoms. As for the correlations between EDEP and IPSF dimensions, significant and negative correlations were found, suggesting that the higher depressive symptoms lower the perception of family support on individuals. Only marginally significant differences were found between genders, as to depressive symptoms (EDEP and BDI), indicating that women would score more at the depression scales.
Depressive symptoms; Family; Psychological assessment
