Normative Data on the Korean ADHD Rating Scales(K-ARS) for Parents and Teacher / 신경정신의학

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: Identifying children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and providing early therapeutic interventions for them are important to prevent secondary problems in academic achievement and emotional disturbances. The aims of the study is to examine the characteristics of K-ARS for parents and teachers, a screening questionnaire to identify children with ADHD, by age and sex of the children, to examine its clinical validity, and to provide norm data of K-ARS for school-aged children which will facilitate the use of K-ARS in clinical practice and research. METHODS: Randomly selected 1st to 6th graders of the two elementary schools (N=1044) in Anyang City participated in this study. Twenty three children diagnosed with ADHD at the child and adolescent clinic at the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital were included in this study for the analysis of validity. Parents and teachers completed K-ARS. Descriptive statistics, t-test and analysis of variance were performed. RESULTS: K-ARS scores showed significant difference according to the gender, with boys having higher scores than girls. There was no significant difference of the scores by ages. Validity analysis showed that K-ARS distinguishes children with ADHD from children without ADHD well. The normative data were presented by age and sex. CONCLUSION: K-ARS for parents and teachers has an excellent clinical validity to discriminate children with ADHD from children without ADHD. Different normative data of K-ARS need to be used due to the gender difference. K-ARS is a useful tool for screening and identifying children with ADHD. Future studies are required to include larger samples with adolescents in various geographic areas.