Bruce A. Bracken, PhD and Barbara S. Boatwright, PhD
Purpose: Comprehensive assessment of attention deficit with and without hyperactivity (ADD/ADHD)
Age: 8 through to18 yrs
Admin: Individual or group
Time: 10-20 minutes
Qualification Level: B
The CAT-C is a 42-item assessment instrument with three parallel forms: a Self-Rating Form completed by the child/adolescent; a Parent Rating Form completed by one or both parents; and a Teacher Rating Form completed by the child's/adolescent's teacher(s). All three CAT-C Rating Forms are comprehensive, highly reliable, and sensitive to the symptomatology of attentional deficits both with and without hyperactivity for children and adolescents.
Closely aligned with current diagnostic criteria, the CAT-C includes scales, clusters, and items that are sensitive to symptom presentation in differing contexts and as expressed as either internal sensations or overt behaviours. The CAT-C presents a balanced framework of clinical diagnostic content dispersed across important life contexts. In addition, three validity scales are embedded within the instrument--Negative Impression, Infrequency, and Positive Impression.
In keeping with the goal of instrument development, the CAT-C closely resembles the adult version of the CAT (CAT-A™). All item content, Clinical scales, Context clusters, and Locus clusters are similar and parallel between both forms. Together, the CAT-C and the CAT-A assess a continuum of behaviours and sensations across an individual's life span.
The CAT-C assessment materials consist of the CAT-A/CAT-C Professional Manual, three carbonless CAT-C Rating Form (one each for the Self-Rating, Parent Rating, Teacher Rating Forms), and the three CAT-C Score Summary Profile Forms, each corresponding to one of the Rating Forms. The three Rating Forms can be hand-scored or the item responses can be hand-entered into the CAT Software Portfolio (CAT-SP™).
Standardisation and Validity
The CAT-C was standardised on a sample of 800 children/adolescents ages 8-18 years, 800 matched parents of the children/adolescents, and 500 teachers of these same children. The sample was well-matched to the U.S. population for gender, race/ethnicity, and education level.
Concurrent validity for the CAT-C was assessed via comparison with the Conners' Rating Scales, the Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Test, the Clinical Assessment of Behaviour™, and the Clinical Assessment of Depression™, revealing correlations for both the nonclinical and the combined clinical samples that are in the moderate-to-high range across all three Rating Forms.
Special Features of the CAT-C
- Consists of three forms--a self-report form, a parent report form, and a teacher report form.
- Thorough and complete score reporting system that includes standard scores (T scores), percentile ranks, confidence intervals, qualitative classifications, and graphical profile displays.
- Linkage to the DSM5 diagnostic criteria with comprehensive content coverage both within and across scales/clusters, assisting in rendering a differential diagnoses.
- Context clusters that indicate contexts in which ADD/ADHD symptoms are most problematic and Locus clusters that indicate the extent to which ADD/ADHD symptoms are experienced internally as sensations versus symptoms that are acted out upon as overt behaviours.
