Psychometric characteristics of the Children's Motivation Scale

A 16-item Children's Motivation Scale (CMS) was developed to evaluate level of motivation in children and adolescents. The study population consisted of a normative sample of 290 school children and a clinical sample of 165 child and adolescent psychiatric patients. Test-retest, internal consistency, and interrater reliability were fair to good for both samples. Validity of the CMS was demonstrated by its ability to differentiate clinical from normative samples according to the level of motivation, by a significant correlation of the CMS with an independent measure of withdrawal, and by its lack of correlation with an independent measure of depression. Principal components analysis identified a three-component structure. These findings support the conclusion that the CMS accesses a clinically important but often overlooked psychiatric construct.