Background and Aim:  Behavior activation is the increase of activity participation. This causes more contact with positive reinforcement and improvement of people's feeling condition. The aim of the study is to execute the short form behavior activation scale for depression in Semnan university students.

Materials and Methods: The present study was descriptive and of psychometric studies' type. For this purpose, 300 students (150 male and 150 female) were selected by cluster sampling method & responded to Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale-Short Form (BADS-SF), Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale-long form (BADS-LF), Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS) Questionnaire (Divergent validity). For data analysis, factor analysis method, Cronbach's alpha coefficient and the Pearson correlation were used by software SPSS_V19 and LISREL_V8.80.

Results: Exploratory factor analysis result showed that this questionnaire was saturated with two factors of activation and avoidance. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed two factors to assess the scale. Pearson correlation results indicated a significant relationship between short form of behavioral activation for depression and depression (r= -0.623 & p≤0.01) and anxiety (r= -0.440 & p≤0.01) and stress (r= -0.470 & p≤0.01) and long form of behavioral activation for depression (r= 0.324 & p≤0.01). Also behavioral activation reliability was assessed using Cronbach's alpha and it was 0.68 for the total scale, 0.80 for activation, and 0.68 for avoidance subscales.

Conclusion: The Persian version of Behavioral Activation for Depression Scale-Short Form had acceptable psychometric properties in students’ population and it can be used as a valid instrument in psychological research.