Assessing culturally different students for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder using behavior rating scales

J Abnorm Child Psychol. 1998 Jun;26(3):187-98. doi: 10.1023/a:1022620217886.

Abstract

Behavior rating scales are commonly used in the assessment of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, there is little information available concerning the extent to which scales are valid with culturally different students. This study explored the use of the ADHD-IV Rating Scale School Version with male Caucasian (CA) and African American (AA) students from ages 5 to 18 years. Teachers rated AA students higher on all symptoms across all age groups. LISREL analysis indicated that scale does not perform identically across groups. This was supported by the results of multidimensional scaling with suggested that there is a different relation between items across groups. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / diagnosis*
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / ethnology
  • Black or African American / statistics & numerical data*
  • Chi-Square Distribution
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cross-Cultural Comparison*
  • Factor Analysis, Statistical
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Models, Psychological*
  • Models, Statistical
  • Personality Tests*
  • Psychometrics
  • White People / statistics & numerical data*