title: Psychometric Properties of the Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) in Chinese Adolescents.
abstract: The Children's Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS) is a 40-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure children's negative thoughts. This study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese translation of the CATS. Participants included 1,993 students (average age = 14.73) from three schools in Mainland China. A subsample of the participants was retested after 4 weeks. Confirmatory factor analysis replicated the original structure with four first-order factors loading on a single higher-order factor. The convergent and divergent validity of the CATS were good. The CATS demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Boys scored higher on the CATS-hostility subscale, but there were no other gender differences. Older adolescents (15-18 years) reported higher scores than younger adolescents (12-14 years) on the total score and on the physical threat, social threat, and hostility subscales. The CATS proved to be a reliable and valid measure of automatic thoughts in Chinese adolescents.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Ling
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.forename: Ronald M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Rapee
authors.forename: Xuan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tao
authors.forename: Yulei
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jianping
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D000367:Age Factors; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D002648:Child; D002681:China; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D005260:Female; D006791:Hostility; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D057566:Self Report; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking; D014175:Translating