Relationship of Activity to Depression in Adolescents. Development of the Adolescent Activities Checklist

The present study was conducted to develop an activity checklist for adolescents. The Adolescent Activities Checklist (AAC) comprises 100 items that assess pleasant and unpleasant activities. The AAC subscales demonstrated high internal consistency and homogeneity. In a validation study conducted on 145 students in Grades 8-12, the Unpleasant Activities total scores were correlated with total Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores and with the Pleasant Activities total scores. Analysis of subjects from the validation study with total BDI scores plus or minus one standard deviation from the mean (extreme BDI scores) indicated that there were differences on the Unpleasant Activities total scores but not on the Pleasant Activities total scores. The AAC appears to be a reliable index of the frequency of pleasant and unpleasant activities reported by adolescents.