Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 29, 2026

Measuring Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) Activity in Toddlers - Resting and Developmental Challenges
Published on: February 25, 2016
Development and validation of a measure of children's automatic thoughts: the children's automatic thoughts scale
1Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia.
Abstract:
The aim of this study was to describe the history, factor structure and psychometric properties of the Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS). The CATS is a self-report measure designed to assess a wide range of negative self-statements in children and adolescents. The results of confirmatory factor analyses supported four distinct but strongly correlated factors relating to automatic thoughts on physical threat, social threat, personal failure and hostility. The internal consistency of the total score and subscales was high and test-retest reliability at 1 and 3 months was acceptable. The CATS effectively discriminated between control children and adolescents, and clinically anxious, depressed, or behavior disorder children and adolescents, and showed good discriminant validity across clinical subgroups on the subscales. Results suggest that the CATS is a promising instrument in the assessment of a range of negative automatic thoughts across both internalizing and externalizing problems in young people.
Related Concept Videos
Wechsler's Contribution to Measures of Intelligence
Automatic Processing and Automatic Social Behavior
Binet's Contribution to Measures of Intelligence
Revisionist Views of Adolescent and Adult Cognition
Information Processing Approach
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

