This study aimed to determine the prevalence of depression, anxiety, and the associated factors among 632 adolescents (age range: 13-17 years, Mage = 14.47, SD = 1.32) staying in sheltered homes in Malaysia. The Malay versions of the Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory, Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire, and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale were applied. The overall prevalence of mild to severe depression and anxiety in this study was 70.9% and 82.3% respectively, with 64.1% for comorbidity of both symptoms. Specifically, the prevalence rates of minimal, mild, moderate, and severe depressive symptoms were 29.1%, 38.4%, 22.4%, and 10.1% respectively whereas the prevalence rates of minimal, mild, moderate, and severe anxiety symptoms were 17.7%, 27.7%, 33.2%, and 21.4% respectively. The severity of negative automatic thoughts increased with the severity of depression and anxiety. Age, anxiety, negative automatic thoughts, and self-esteem were significantly associated with depression while depression, negative automatic thought, and anger were significantly associated with anxiety. The high rates of depression and anxiety among adolescents residing in the sheltered homes indicate the need to identify these at-risk populations and provide trained personnel who can deliver psychiatric and psychological services at sheltered homes. © Universiti Putra Malaysia Press.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Malay version of the Beck Youth Inventories-Second Edition (BYI-2 Malay) in a sample of adolescents living in the nongovernment-run sheltered homes. In this study, 300 adolescents completed the BYI-2 Malay, the Beck Depression Inventory-Malay (BDI-Malay), the Beck Anxiety Inventory-Malay (BAI-Malay), the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire-Malay (ATQ-Malay), and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale-Malay (RSES-Malay). The internal consistency estimates for the BYI-2 Malay scales, as measured by Cronbach’s alpha, were excellent: .86 for self-concept, .89 for anxiety, .92 for depression, .92 for anger, and .92 for disruptive behaviours. The five-factor model of the BYI-2 Malay (i.e., Self-Concept, Anxiety, Depression, Anger, and Disruptive Behaviour) showed a good fit to the data. Evidence for concurrent validity was established between the BYI-2 Malay Self-Concept scale and the RSES-Malay (r = .41), between the BYI-2 Malay Anxiety scale and the BAI-Malay (r = .60), and between the BYI-2 Malay Depression scale and the BDI-Malay (r = .69). The evidence for convergent validity was established between the BYI-2 Malay Anger scale and the ATQ-Malay (r = .71), and between BYI- 2 Malay Disruptive Behaviour scale and the ATQ Malay (r =.52). The present findings shed light on the utility of the BYI-2 Malay in aiding clinicians as well as therapists for identifying multiple symptoms of social and emotional problems in adolescents.