Depression is a critical health issue and world wide epidemiological priority with 12-25% of the population affected by this most prevalent psychiatric disorder. The cost of recurrent major depression is considerable, and up to 80% of individuals who have major depression experience recurrent episodes with increasing severity and frequency. There is increasing emphasis on patient participation in management and prevention of this chronic illness. A growing literature on patient self- management programs for other chronic medical illnesses include development of reliable measures of illness specific self-efficacy. The concept of self-efficacy applies to domain specific behaviors and beliefs and has been associated with increased self care activities such as symptom management, treatment adherence, and problem solving. There is no published instrument specific to the measurement of self-efficacy in depression. This methodological, descriptive, correlational study will answer two questions: 1) What is the reliability and validity of a new instrument designed to measure self-efficacy in persons with recurrent major depressive disorder? 2) To what extent is self-efficacy related to the ability to self manage symptoms of recurrent depressive episodes? Methods include a two-phase process. In phase I item generation and analysis will include determination of content validity and internal consistency. In phase II examination of the refined instrument will include tests of construct validity, reliability, and criterion-related validity. Descriptive statistics, the content validity index, Cronbach's alpha coefficient, factor analysis, and Person Product-moment correlation will be used to analyze data. The resulting instrument is anticipated to have interdisciplinary clinical and research uses. The study will point toward future research in the area of self-management and relapse prevention in the population of interest.
