De betrouwbaarheid en Validiteit van de ADHD-schalen van de DB-DOS in de oudermodule

Abstract

Objective: To compare two different groups of children with attention deficit hyperactivity problems to a control group, on the ADHD-scales of one module of the DB-DOS; a new observational method for assessing preschool disruptive behaviour. The DB-DOS assesses observed disruptive behaviour in three domains; attention problems, hyperactivity and impulsivity problems, and the combination, across one context; the parent module. Furthermore it is tested whether the judgement of parents and teachers about a child’s behaviour are correlated with the problems scored on the DB-DOS. Method: The sample included a total of 125 coded DB-DOS sessions. Three groups were composed based on their diagnosis; a group of children with ADHD, a group of children with ADHD and comorbid DBD, and a control group. Differences between groups were tested using multiple analyses of variance and follow-up analyses of variance with the scores of each ADHD-scale. Besides, correlations were tested between the scores on the ADHD-scales and questionnaires, witch offer insight into the judgement of parents and teachers about a child’s behaviour, and the experienced impairment. Results: With respect to reliability, the internal consistency of the ADHD-scales was low to moderate, and the interrater reliability was acceptable. With respect to validity all groups revealed a significant groupeffect; follow-up analyses showed a significant difference between the clinical groups and the control group on each ADHD-scale, with the clinical group having higher scores than the control group. Pearson correlations revealed moderate but significant correlations of children’s ADHD-symptoms with the CBCL, TRF and the C-GAS scores. No significant correlations were found with the IFS. Conclusion: According to expectations the ADHD-only, and the ADHD and comorbid DBD group, showed more ADHD-symptoms in comparison to the control group. Also according to expectations there was a significant correlation between the judgement on the CBCL, TRF and C-GAS and the ADHD-symptoms on the DBDOS. No significant correlation was found with the IFS. We conclude that these results support the clinical validity of the ADHD-scales of the DB-DOS. We expect the clinical validity to increase when data of the other two modules of the DB-DOS are added, and when the internal consistency of the ADHD-scale is improved.