Behavioral Psychology / Psicología Conductua (BP) is published by IMR Press from Volume 33 Issue 1 (2025). Previous articles were published by another publisher under the hybrid model (CC-BY-NC license or on a subscription basis), and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement.
, Fernando L. Vázquez 1, Vanessa Blanco 2, Ángela Torres 21 Universidad de A Coruña, España
2 Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, España
*Correspondencia: Patricia Otero, Dpto. de Psicología, Universidad de A Coruña, Campus de Elviña, 15071 A Coruña (España).
E-mail: patricia.otero.otero@udc.es
Abstract
Although there is evidence that the depression level in caregivers is associated with their negative thoughts and the Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire (ATQ) being the most widely used instrument to assess these negative thoughts, there is no data of the psychometric properties of the ATQ in caregivers. In the current study, trained independent evaluators administered the ATQ and assessed the level of depressive symptoms and the diagnosis of major depressive episodes in 592 family caregivers (87.2% women, mean age of 55.4 years). The internal consistency of the ATQ was .96. Three factors explained 56.3% of the total variance. There was a significant correlation between depressive symptomatology and negative thoughts (r= .684, p< .001). The ATQ differentiated between depressed and non-depressed caregivers, correctly classifying 86.8% of cases. A score of 52 was an adequate cut-off to differentiate depressed caregivers from non-depressed caregivers (sensitivity= 80.9%, specificity= 75.5%). The results indicate that the ATQ is a reliable and valid instrument to evaluate negative thoughts in the family caregiver population.
Keywords
- Automatic thoughts questionnaire
- psychometric properties
- family caregivers