Parent and Teacher Ratings of ADHD Symptoms: Psychometric Properties in a Community-Based Sample

Obtained data from parents and teachers for a large sample of urban school children aged 6 to 12 years on the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) Rating Scale, and collected criterion measures (e.g., direct observations of classroom behavior, academic achievement scores) on a smaller subsample. The ADHD Rating Scale was found to be a highly reliable questionnaire with adequate criterion-related validity. Strong differences between boys and girls were evident with respect to the frequency of ADHD symptomatology. The ADHD Rating Scale should be useful as one component of a multimodal assessment approach that would include rating scales surveying both general and specific areas of psychopathology.