The Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality: Validation Data and Mental Health Correlates

Abstract

A revised Child and Adolescent Scale of Irrationality (Bernard & Laws, 1988) was administered to 567 children and adolescents to determine the construct validity of Albert Ellis’s theory of rational-emotive behavior therapy (REBT) as applied to childhood irrational thought. Participants also completed Spielberger’s Trait Anxiety, Anger and Curiosity scales in order to be able to examine the relationships among childhood irrational thought, emotionality and to establish convergent/divergent validity. Teachers rated each participating student on the dimensions of emotional problems, low effort (in school work), and behavior problems. A principal components analysis with varimax rotation produced a four-factor solution (“Self-downing,” “Intolerance of Frustrating Rules,” “Intolerance of Work Frustration,” and “Demands for Fairness”). Significant correlations were obtained among Total Irrationality and the four irrational subscales with trait anxiety, anger, as well as with teacher ratings of students. Aspects of Ellis’s theory were confirmed while the emergence of two forms of low frustration tolerance and the primacy of self-downing may require a reconceptualization of the nature of irrational thought in the childhood period.