Psychometric properties of the Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) in Turkish children with age and gender differences

Abstract

The present study was designed to analyze the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) and dimensionality of the Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS; Schniering & Rapee, 2002) in Turkish children. The subjects were 710 students (368 female; 342 male) aged from 8-17 years with a mean age of 12.33 (SD=2.27) years. The result of confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) has shown that a four factor model fit the data. Cronbach alpha for the overall CATS was.93. In addition test-re test reliability was.86 across 8 weeks. To asses convergent and divergent validity, CATS was administered together Spielberger State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children-trait subscale (STAIC-trait) and for Adult-trait subscale (STAI-trait), Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Coopersmith Self-esteem Inventory (CSI). The CATS was positively correlated with the STAIC-trait, STAI-trait, CDI and negatively correlated with the CSI. The findings suggest that CATS is a psychometrically sound tool to asses negative automatic thoughts among children and adolescents in Turkish culture.