Validity and Specificity of the Children's Automatic ThoughtsScale in Clinically Anxious and Non-clinical Children

摘要

The present study is a preliminary examinationof the internal, criterion, and convergent validity of theChildren's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS; Schnieringand Rapee 2002), a developmentally sensitive measure ofcognitions associated with childhood internalizing andexternalizing disorders, among clinically anxious and non-clinical children. Participants included 40 children (ages 7-14) with a clinical anxiety disorder and 40 non-clinicalchildren with no prior anxiety disorder diagnosis. Resultssupported the internal consistency and criterion validity ofthe measure. In addition, controlling for age, sex, andclinical status, convergent validity was largely supported,with the Physical Threat subscale correlating with self-report of generalized anxiety and separation anxiety, andthe Social Threat and Personal Failure subscales correlat-ing with self-report of social anxiety and major depression.Limitations and suggestions for further research on theutility of the CATS are discussed.