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Development of the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale
1Department of Psychiatric/Mental Health, School of Nursing, Indiana University, Indianapolis.
Insights
Researchers developed the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS) to measure children's feelings about chronic conditions. This scale demonstrates good validity and reliability for assessing children with asthma or epilepsy.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Psychology
- Psychometrics
- Chronic Illness Management
Background:
- Children with chronic physical conditions often experience psychological challenges.
- Assessing children's attitudes toward illness is crucial for effective management and support.
- Existing instruments may not adequately capture the nuances of children's feelings about their health status.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS).
- To provide a systematic assessment of children's favorability towards having a chronic physical condition.
- To establish the psychometric properties of the CATIS for use in pediatric populations.
Main Methods:
- Development of a short, self-report instrument (CATIS).
- Administration to a sample of 269 children (ages 8-12) with epilepsy or asthma.
- Confirmatory factor analysis and assessment of relationships with established scales (Child Behavior Checklist, Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale).
Main Results:
- Confirmatory factor analysis supported the construct validity of the CATIS.
- The scale demonstrated predicted relationships with measures of behavior and self-concept.
- The CATIS exhibited good internal consistency and test-retest reliability.
Conclusions:
- The Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS) is a valid and reliable instrument for assessing children's attitudes toward chronic illness.
- The CATIS can be effectively used with children diagnosed with conditions such as epilepsy and asthma.
- This scale offers a valuable tool for researchers and clinicians in pediatric healthcare settings.
Abstract:
Described the development of the Child Attitude Toward Illness Scale (CATIS), a short self-report instrument designed to provide a systematic assessment of how favorably or unfavorably children feel about having a chronic physical condition. Subjects were children (N = 269), ages 8-12 years, who had either epilepsy (n = 136) or asthma (n = 133). Results of confirmatory factor analysis and predicted relationships with scores on the Child Behavior Checklist and the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale provided support for construct validity of the scale. Good internal consistency and test-retest reliability were also found.