Normative and psychometric evaluation of the Finnish versions of the KiddyCAT and BigCAT questionnaires

Authors

• Eira Jansson-Verkasalo Dept. of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku
• Siiri Lindblad Dept. of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku
• Essi Vastamäki Dept. of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku
• Kurt Eggers Dept. of Rehabilitation Sciences, Speech-Language Pathology/Audiology Research Group, Ghent University, Belgium, Dept. of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology, Thomas More Antwerp, Belgium & Dept. of Psychology and Speech-Language Pathology, University of Turku
• Martine Vanryckeghem School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of Central Florida, Orlando

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23997/pk.112563

Keywords:

assessment methods, BigCAT, communication attitudes, KiddyCAT, stuttering

Abstract

Research with the “Communication Attitude Test for Preschool and Kindergarten Children
Who Stutter” (KiddyCAT) and “Communication Attitude Test for Adults” (BigCAT) in
several countries have shown that children and adults who stutter have a significantly more
negative attitude toward speech compared to their nonstuttering peers. The aim of the
present study was to evaluate the validity and reliability of an authorized Finnish adaptation
of the “Communication Attitude Test for preschool and kindergarten children who stutter”
(KiddyCAT-Fin) and “Communication Attitude Test for Adults” (BigCAT-Fin). Moreover,
the cut-off scores were defined for clinical use for both self-report tests. In this research, 86
preschool-aged children (41 of which stuttering) completed the KiddyCAT-Fin with 12
statements and 109 adults (29 of which stuttering) completed the BigCAT-Fin with 34
statements. The mean scores were descriptively close to those of the English version of both
measures. Children and adults who stutter had a significantly more negative communication
attitude than fluently speaking children and adults. Internal consistency and re-test reliabilities
were high for both measures. To conclude, the Finnish versions of the KiddyCAT and
BigCAT differentiate stuttering people efficiently from fluently speaking individuals based
on their communication attitudes.