Prevalence of Negative Automatic Thoughts in Children and İnvestigation of Their Relationships With Demographic and Psychological Variables

Objective:

The aim of the present study was to investigate the prevalence of negative automatic thoughts (NATs) in children and their relationships with self esteem, depression and anxiety symptoms. In line with this objective, the prevalence of NATs and whether they differed or not, related to variables such as gender and levels of parental education was assessed. Additionally the study aimed to examine the relationship between NATs and manifesting psychiatricsymptoms such as anxiety, depression and self esteem.

Method:

In order to assess the prevalence of NAT’s, a total number of 1772 secondary school students that had been living in Çankaya district of the city Ankara within the timeframe of the study fi lled in “ Children’s Automatic Thoughts Scale (CATS)”. To examine the relationship between psychiatric symptoms and NATs, another secondary school group that included 158 children in total were also asked to complete “Coopersmith Self-Esteem Inventory”, “State Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children” and “Children’s Depression Inventory” along with CATS.

Results:

Analyses showed 23,8% of the students had NATs and most common NATs were hostility, physical threat, personal failure and social threat, respectively. Children attending private schools, who had working mothers and higher maternal education levels had higher levels of NATs. Moreover, it was found that a negative correlation between NATs and self esteem existed, whileNATs and symptoms of trait anxiety and depression were positively correlated..

Discussion:

The fi nding that prevalence of NATs related to hostility and physical threat being much more common than others might provide valuable information to school counselors and child mental health specialists in considering the type of NATs to choose ,both for preventive work and intervention. .