Brief attention deficit/hyperactivity questinnaire for parents and teachers

THESES

Brief attention deficit/hyperactivity questionnaire for parents and teachers (abstract)^*. Thesis. Curitiba,2006.

Sérgio Antonio Antoniuk^**

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common neurobiological disorder in children. There is no biological marker, either genetic, neurochemical, neurophysiological or neuroimage, capable of confirming ADHD diagnosis or identifying its ethiology. Diagnosis is clinical, based on the symptoms of attention deficit, hyperactiviy and impulsivity, which cause difficulties especially in the learning process and socialization. Interviews, clinical observation, and cognitive evaluation, complemented by questionnaires and rating scales directed to various informants, mainly teachers and parents, are the basis for the diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE: To elaborate a Brief Questionnaire (BQ) for the identification of ADHD symptoms in Grammar and Middle School children and adolescents, parents and teachers versions; to analyse the questionnaires constructo accuracy and validity; to evaluate ADHD prevalence and the subtypes in the school population, according to teachers, based on the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Health-IV, of the American Association of Psychiatry (DSM-IV); to compare the level of agreement amongst teachers, and between teachers and parents, in the identification of children with ADHD symptoms.

METHOD:A questionnaire with questions taken from the DSM-IV and other sources was applied to the subjects’ teachers, in a public school of Curitiba. ADHD prevalence and subtypes related to age, gender and type of teacher were analysed, as well as the level of agreement between teachers. The clinical sample was taken from the school sample. The children were evalutated by a medical/psychological team, and the questionnaire was applied to the parents. After comparing the DSM-IV criteria (parents and teachers/ questionnaires) with the clinical evaluation (gold standard), the BQ, versions for teachers and parents, with a minimum of questions for the attention and hyperactivity/impulsivity dimensions, was developed. The constructo accuracy and validity of the teachers’ version were tested on students from another public school, and of the parents’ version, on a clinical sample.

RESULTS:The ADHD BQ is made of seven items (three of the attention deficit dimension and four of the hyperactivity/impulsivity dimension) in the teachers'version and of eight items (four of the attention deficit dimension and four of the hyperactivity/impulsivity dimension) in the parents’ version. Prevalence according to the teachers was 12 %. The level of agreement related to the questions amongst the teachers was low in both the school and the clinical samples, as well as between teachers and parents. The BQ, compared to the DSM-IV, showed higher sensitivity in the clinical sample. The correlationship and sensitivity were adequate when compared to another school and clinical sample.

DISCUSSION:The ADHD BQ, versions for parents and teachers, elaborated from the Inicial Questionnaire based on the DSM-IV, presented a discriminative capacity similar to the DSM-IV. After the confiability and validity tests in a more representative population, it may be of great clinical and epidemiological usefulness. ADHD high prevalence, according to teachers, is compatible with research results. The low agreement amongst teachers, and between them and the parents, reaffirmed in this study, should alert clinicians to the need of evaluating rating scales and questionnaires from differente sources with the greatest care.

Key words: attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder; prevalence; DSM-IV; questionnaires; rating scales.

*

Desenvolvimento de um questionário Breve para Identificação do Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção/Hiperatividade direcionado a Pais e Professores (Resumo). Tese de Doutorado, Universidade Federal do Paraná ( Área: Saúde da Criança e do Adolescente ). Orientadores: Denise Siqueira Carvalho e Mônica Nunes de Lima Cat.

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  14 Dec 2007
• Date of issue
  Dec 2007