Developed the Children's Depression Scale (CDS) and assessed its psychometric properties and norms. The CDS was administered to 164 Egyptian students (aged 12-15 yrs). Test-retest reliability, internal consistency, and factorial validity were found to be high. Norms were calculated using 876 boys and 797 girls (aged 11-15 yrs). Girls attained a higher mean score than boys. Seven factors were extracted to tap depressive symptoms among children.