title: Modeling rater disagreement for ADHD: are parents or teachers biased?
abstract: The present study is the first to utilize twin modeling to examine whether parent-teacher disagreement for ADHD ratings is due to parent or teacher bias, or due to raters observing different but valid ADHD behaviors. A joint analysis was conducted with 106 twin pairs, including twins selected for ADHD and control twin pairs. Total ADHD scores were analyzed using multiple rater models that estimate genetic and environmental contributions common to both raters and unique to each rater. Results suggest that 1) disagreement in ADHD ratings is strongly due to parents and teachers observing different ADHD behaviors, some of which is valid and some of which is due to bias, and 2) parents may be more biased than teachers in their ADHD ratings.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, 4200 East 9th Ave., Box C-268-35, Denver, CO 80262, USA. christie.hartman@colorado.edu
authors.forename: Christie A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Hartman
authors.forename: Soo H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Rhee
authors.forename: Erik G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Willcutt
authors.forename: Bruce F
authors.initials: BF
authors.lastname: Pennington
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D015982:Bias; D002648:Child; D004200:Diseases in Twins / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D005178:Faculty; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D010641:Phenotype; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012931:Social Environment