Open AccessIs the endorsement of the Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder symptom criteria ratings influenced by informant assessment, gender, age, and co‐occurring disorders? A measurement invariance study
Author(s) -
Vitoratou Silia,
GarciaRosales Alexandra,
Banaschewski Tobias,
SonugaBarke Edmund,
Buitelaar Jan,
Oades Robert D.,
Rothenberger Aribert,
Steinhausen HansChristoph,
Taylor Eric,
Faraone Stephen V.,
Chen Wai
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
international journal of methods in psychiatric research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.275
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1557-0657
pISSN - 1049-8931
DOI - 10.1002/mpr.1794
Subject(s) - psychology , attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , impulsivity , measurement invariance , conduct disorder , clinical psychology , attention deficit , trait , affect (linguistics) , rating scale , developmental psychology , psychiatry , confirmatory factor analysis , structural equation modeling , statistics , mathematics , communication , computer science , programming language
Objectives This study aims to ascertain whether the differences of prevalence and severity of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are true or whether children are perceived and rated differently by parent and teacher informant assessments (INFAs) according to gender, age, and co‐occurring disorders, even at equal levels of latent ADHD traits. Methods Use of latent trait models (for binary responses) to evaluate measurement invariance in children with ADHD and their siblings from the International Multicenter ADHD Gene data. Results Substantial measurement noninvariance between parent and teacher INFAs was detected for seven out of nine inattention (IA) and six out of nine hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) items; the correlations between parent and teacher INFAs for six IA and four HI items were not significantly different from zero, which suggests that parent and teacher INFAs are essentially rating different kinds of behaviours expressed in different settings, instead of measurement bias. However, age and gender did not affect substantially the endorsement probability of either IA or HI symptom criteria, regardless of INFA. For co‐occurring disorders, teacher INFA ratings were largely unaffected by co‐morbidity; conversely, parental endorsement of HI symptoms is substantially influenced by co‐occurring oppositional defiant disorder. Conclusions Our findings suggest general robustness of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ADHD diagnostic items in relation to age and gender. Further research on classroom presentations is needed.