Depression literacy and misconceptions scale (DepSter): a new two-factorial tool for measuring beliefs about depression

BACKGROUND: Depression literacy has received extensive attention within mental health research. It has been studied by different social groups and professions in Western and non-Western cultures. The importance of this topic stems from the fact that depression literacy is strongly related to attitudes toward people who are diagnosed with depression, the tendency to stigmatize this mental disorder, and to the propensity to undertake help-seeking behaviors. Therefore, understanding and promoting depression literacy is crucial in contemporary mental health prevention and promotion. We propose a new two-factorial tool measuring beliefs about depression. This 14-item self-report measure captures how people vary across two dimensions of beliefs about depression—depression literacy and misconceptions about depression. METHODS: In ten studies with a total sample of over 4,600 participants from three countries, we demonstrated the two-factorial structure of the Depression Literacy and Misconceptions Scale (DepSter) in Polish (Studies 1 and 2), American (Study 4), and British (Study 5) samples. We showed measurement equivalence for the Polish and English versions of the scale (Study 3). Furthermore, we tested the discriminant meaning of the two dimensions of beliefs about depression analyzing its association with health literacy, mental health literacy, and prejudice toward people with mental illness (Study 4), depression literacy and depression stigma (Study 5), empathetic concerns (Study 7), social dominance orientation (Study 8), and the Big Five personality traits (Study 9). We also investigated whether individuals with formal education in psychology and direct or indirect experience with depression demonstrate a higher level of depression literacy and a lower level of misconceptions about depression (Study 6). Our measure showed high stability for two dimensions of beliefs about depression (Study 10), in both its Polish and English versions, with the measurement conducted after three weeks and three months. DISCUSSION: We conclude that the proposed approach to beliefs about depression capturing both depression literacy and misconceptions about depression measured with the DepSter scale can easily be applied in clinical and social settings, especially in studies concerning the perception of those diagnosed with depression. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12888-023-04796-8.