Overview
The CATS is a measure of negative self belief. Items ask respondents children about their negative beliefs around internalising and externalising problems.Scoring & Interpretation
The measure is a 40-item questionnaire which asks children about the frequency that they have experienced specific negative beliefs over the last week. Endorsement of items is indicated on a 5-point scale from 'not at all' (0) to 'all the time' (4). Items cover four domains of cognition: physical threat (eg 'I'm going to get hurt'), social threat (eg 'People are thinking bad things about me'), hostility (eg 'Some people deserve what they get') and personal failure (eg 'Nothing ever works out for me anymore'). For each subscale, sum the item responses (see the original paper which reports the items that correspond to each subscale). An overall scale score can also be calculated by summing all item responses, with a maximum score of 160 (higher scores indicating more negative beliefs).Psychometric Properties
Internal Consistency
Internal consistency is excellent for the overall scale (Cronbach's alpha = .95) and good - excellent for the four subscales. For physical threat, alpha = .85; for social threat, alpha = .92; for hostility, alpha = .85; and for personal failure, alpha = .92.
Test-Retest Reliability
Test-retest validity was strong at one month (r= .79) and three months (r= .76).
Factor Structure
Conformatory factor analyses supported four subscales relating to content of cognitions: physical threat; social threat; hostility and personal failure.