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Development and validation of the revised Children's Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale
Chad M McWhinnie1, John R Z Abela, Bärbel Knäuper
1Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. chad.mcwhinnie@mail.mcgill.co
The British Journal of Clinical Psychology
|February 7, 2009
Summary
Dysfunctional attitudes in children and adolescents cluster into Self-critical Perfectionism (SCP) and Personal Standards Perfectionism (PSP). SCP is more strongly linked to negative psychosocial outcomes than PSP.
Area of Science:
- Child and Adolescent Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- The Children's Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale (CDAS) is used to assess negative core beliefs in youth.
- Understanding the factor structure of the CDAS is crucial for its accurate application in research and clinical settings.
- Previous research has not fully elucidated the psychometric properties of the CDAS across different developmental stages.
Purpose of the Study:
- To examine the factor structure and reliability of the CDAS in children and early adolescents.
- To confirm the reliability of the CDAS factor structure in independent samples representing different developmental stages.
Main Methods:
- Phase 1: Exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood, promax rotation) of the 40-item CDAS in 140 children (ages 6-14) of affectively ill parents.
- Phase 2: Confirmatory factor analysis of the identified factors in two independent samples: 130 third graders and 184 seventh graders.
- Measures included the CDAS, depressive symptoms, coping strategies, and cognitive-interpersonal vulnerability factors.
Main Results:
- Phase 1 yielded a two-factor solution: Self-critical Perfectionism (SCP) and Personal Standards Perfectionism (PSP).
- Phase 2 confirmed the two-factor structure provided a significantly better fit than a one-factor model in both third and seventh graders.
- Both SCP and PSP demonstrated high internal consistency. SCP was more strongly associated with depressive symptoms, maladaptive coping, and impaired relationships than PSP.
Conclusions:
- Dysfunctional attitudes, as measured by the CDAS, can be reliably categorized into SCP and PSP in children and early adolescents.
- SCP appears to have a more detrimental impact on children's psychosocial functioning compared to PSP.
- These findings support the use of a two-factor model for the CDAS and highlight the differential impact of perfectionism subtypes on youth well-being.
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