The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) is one of the most widely used clinical and research instruments to assess depression. The aim of this study was to adapt and validate the BDI-II for its use in the identification of depressive symptoms in adolescents from the rural population of Cuenca-Ecuador. An instrumental study was carried out to obtain evidence of content, construct and convergent validity of the Ecuadorian version of the BDI-II, as well as its internal consistency.