Spanish adaptation and validation of the Social Attribution Task-Multiple choice (SAT-MC) versions I and II for children and adolescents

Abstract

Introduction. Social cognition is progressively acquired from childhood to early adulthood. Nevertheless there is a shortage of social cognition scales with normative data for Spanish children and adolescents. Social Attribution Task-Multiple Choice (SAT-MC) and its alternate version SAT-MC-II are social cognition instruments that measure mentalization skills in adults with psychosis. This study aimed to report psychometric characteristics and normative data of the Spanish version of SAT-MC and SAT-MC-II in a sample of minors.

Methods. The sample included 511 children and adolescents, from 8 to 15 years old, that volunteered to participate in the study. SAT-MC and SAT-MC-II were translated into Spanish versions, resulting in Tarea de Atribución Social-Elección Múltiple I and II (TAS-EM-I and TAS-EM-II). Participants completed both scales in two different sessions in a two-week longitudinal study. The order of scales was counterbalanced across visits.

Results. The internal consistency obtained was acceptable for TAS-EM (Cronbach’s alpha=0.75) and good for TAS-EM-II (Cronbach’s alpha= 0.80). Test-retest reliability showed a moderate correlation (r = 0.49; p< .001). Age positively correlated with TASEM-I (r = 0.40; p< .001) and TAS-EM-II (r = 0.54; p< .001). Percentiles are reported for each age group from 8 to 15 years old.

Discussion. The current normative data allow the study of social cognition development in Spanish children and adolescents. In accordance with previous literature, our results showed that social cognition performance improved from childhood to adolescence. Moreover, psychometric properties of SAT-MC resulted similar to the previous studies published in adults with schizophrenia and undergraduate students.