This study aimed to investigate evidences of validity based on the relationship among other variables for the Depression Scale - EDEP with the Tests of Sustained and Divided Attention. Participated 213 students of a federal university in Minas Gerais, aged between 18 and 52 years, predominantly women. No significant correlations between the instruments were found, although the directions of the correlations were as expected. Regarding the risk factors, also evaluated, it was noticed that the group of participants with depression diagnosis differed from the non-depressive, according to the results of the EDEP. One explanation for the lack of association between depressive symptoms and impaired attention was the low variability in the scores of the instruments, which may have affected the results. Although this work presents important considerations about the constructs and the sample, further studies should be conducted to highlight differences between clinical and other samples.