title: Comparison of three ADHD screening instruments in college students of varying cognitive ability.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess three of the better known screeners for Attention Deficit/Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and review the relationship between ADHD and cognitive ability.
  
  
  METHODS
  The three ADHD screeners were administered to 111 college students enrolled in a college Introductory Psychology class, on whom ACT scores and total course performance were also available. As a measure of cognitive ability, the Wonderlic Personnel Test (Wonderlic, Inc., 2000) was also administered. Furthermore, self-report data were available from participants who had been diagnosed with ADHD. The three screeners were the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS) (Kessler et al., 2005), the Conners' Adult ADHD Rating Scale-Self-Report: Long Version (CAARS) (Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999), and the Brown ADD Scales (Brown, 1996).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results are discussed in terms of the scales' reliability, as well as their relationship to academic aptitude, class performance, and their ability to identify self-reported ADHD diagnoses.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  All three screeners exhibited acceptable reliability levels. Criterion validity was demonstrated by the relationship between the CAARS's inattention subscale and self-reported cases of ADHD. Criterion validity was also seen in the relationship found between the CAARS's hyperactivity/restlessness subscale and the total course performance even after controlling for cognitive ability. Contrary to past research cognitive ability exhibited a weak but significant relationship with a few screeners and screener subscales.
authors.affiliation: University of Memphis, TN, USA. mdfllrkl@memphis.edu
authors.forename: Melissa D
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Fuller-Killgore
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Burlison
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dwyer
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001076:Aptitude; D001288:Attention; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008403:Mass Screening; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult