Internal consistency of an Arabic adaptation of the Beck Depression Inventory-II with college students in eighteen Arab countries

This study examined the adequacy and consistency of the second edition of the Beck Depression Inventory using an Arabic version of the BDI-II developed by Ghareeb (2000). Coefficient alphas were computed for samples of male and female undergraduates recruited from Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, U.A. Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco (n=600, 270, 479, 841, 943, 780, 781, 356, 230, 360, 333, 590, 735, 275, 291, 298, 300, 706, respectively). Values of alpha ranged between.82-.93. The inventory seems viable in the Arabic context, its use in cross-cultural research may be explored.