Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): parents' judgment about school, teachers' judgment about home.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to separate sources of observer and situational variance in reporting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptomatology.


METHODS
In a sample of 30 children diagnosed with ADHD, ADHD symptomatology was assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children-Parent Version (DISC-P), with parents and teachers as informants. Both parents and teachers reported about the child's ADHD symptomatology at home as well as at school.


RESULTS
Parents and teachers showed high within-observer cross-situational presence of ADHD symptoms. However, the between-observer agreement on the presence of ADHD symptoms within the same situation (home or school) was low. This pattern held equally true for attention/concentration and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptom scores.


CONCLUSIONS
In evaluating ADHD symptomatology, it is important to obtain independent reports about the child's behaviour at school from the teacher and about the child's behaviour at home from the parents.
de Nijs
Pieter F A
PF
Outpatients' Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus MC Sophia Children's Hospital, 3000 CB Rotterdam, The Netherlands. p.denijs@erasmusmc.nl
Ferdinand
Robert F
RF
de Bruin
Esther I
EI
Dekker
Marieke C J
MC
van Duijn
Cornelia M
CM
Verhulst
Duijn C
DC
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004777:Environment; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012574:Schools