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Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale
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About Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale
Scale Name
Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale
Author Details
C.A Schniering, and R.M Rapee (ron.rapee@mq.edu.au)
Translation Availability
Not Sure
Background/Description
The Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) was developed in response to a need for a reliable and valid measure of automatic thoughts in children and adolescents. Automatic thoughts are quick, fleeting thoughts that occur in response to events or situations. They are often negative and self-critical, and they can play a significant role in the development and maintenance of anxiety and depression.
Prior to the development of the CATS, there were a limited number of measures available for assessing automatic thoughts in children and adolescents. These measures were often either too long or too complex for young people to understand and complete accurately. Additionally, they often focused on specific types of automatic thoughts, such as those related to anxiety or depression.
The CATS is a 40-item self-report measure that assesses a wide range of negative automatic thoughts in children and adolescents. The items are divided into four subscales:
Physical threat (e.g., “I might get hurt.”)
Social threat (e.g., “People are going to laugh at me.”)
Personal failure (e.g., “I’m not good enough.”)
Hostility (e.g., “I hate everyone.”)
Children and adolescents are asked to rate the frequency with which they experience each automatic thought on a 5-point Likert scale, from 1 (“Not at all”) to 5 (“All the time”). Total scores and subscale scores can be calculated, and higher scores indicate more negative automatic thoughts.
The CATS has been shown to have high internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity with other measures of anxiety and depression. It is also sensitive to treatment change, making it a useful tool for monitoring the progress of CBT and other interventions that target automatic thoughts.
The CATS is typically used with children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18. However, it has also been used with younger children in some studies. The CATS can be administered individually or in groups, and it takes about 10-15 minutes to complete.
Administration, Scoring and Interpretation
- Provide the child or adolescent with a copy of the CATS and explain that they are being asked to rate how often they have had certain thoughts in the past week.
- Ask the child or adolescent to read each item carefully and circle the number that best represents how often they have had the thought in the past week.
- Once the child or adolescent has completed the CATS, collect the scale and score it according to the instructions provided in the manual.
Reliability and Validity
The Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) has been shown to have good reliability and validity in a variety of studies.
Reliability refers to the consistency of a measure over time and across different raters. The CATS has been shown to have high internal consistency, meaning that the items on the scale are highly correlated with each other. The CATS also has good test-retest reliability, meaning that scores on the scale are relatively stable over time.
Validity refers to the extent to which a measure measures what it is intended to measure. The CATS has been shown to have good convergent validity with other measures of anxiety and depression. This means that scores on the CATS are correlated with scores on other measures that are known to be valid assessments of anxiety and depression.
The CATS has also been shown to have good discriminant validity. This means that scores on the CATS are not correlated with scores on measures of other constructs, such as intelligence and academic achievement.
In addition, the CATS has been shown to be sensitive to treatment change. This means that scores on the CATS decrease after children and adolescents receive effective treatment for anxiety and depression.
Available Versions
40-Items
Reference
Schniering, C. A., & Rapee, R. M. (2002). Development and validation of a measure of children’s automatic thoughts: the children’s automatic thoughts scale. Behaviour research and therapy, 40(9), 1091-1109.
Important Link
Scale File:
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the CATS?
A: The CATS is a 40-item self-report measure that assesses a wide range of negative automatic thoughts in children and adolescents.
Q: Who can take the CATS?
A: The CATS is typically used with children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18. However, it has also been used with younger children in some studies.
Q: How are the CATS scored?
A: The CATS is scored by adding up the scores for each item. Total scores can range from 40 to 200, with higher scores indicating more negative automatic thoughts. Subscale scores can also be calculated by adding up the scores for the items in each subscale.
Q: What are the subscales of the CATS?
A: The four subscales of the CATS are:
- Physical threat
- Social threat
- Personal failure
- Hostility
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