Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire—Revised: Psychometric examination.

Abstract

This study examines the psychometric properties of the Children's Attributional Style Questionnaire—Revised (CASQ-R; N. J. Kaslow & S. Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991), a 24-item shortened measure derived from the 48-item CASQ designed to assess children's causal explanations for positive and negative events. The data for this study come from 1,086 children, 9 to 12 yean* old, with equal representation of boys and girls and African American and Caucasian children. Approximately one half (n = 475) of the youths also completed the CASQ-R 6 months later. Results revealed that although the CASQ-R was somewhat less reliable than the original CASQ, with moderate internal consistency reliability and fair test-retesl reliability, it demonstrated equivalent criterion-related validity with self-reported depressive symptoms. Psychometric properties of the CASQ-R showed some variation by race, such that the overall composite demonstrated better internal consistency and criterion-related validity among Caucasian youths than among African American youths.