The Impact of Impairment Criteria on Rates of ADHD Diagnoses in Preschoolers

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• 作者：Dione M. Healey ; Carlin J. Miller ; Katia L. Castelli ; David J. Marks and Jeffrey M. Halperin
• 关键词：ADHD ; Impairment ; Preschool ; Rating scale
• 刊名：Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
• 出版年：2008
• 出版时间：July, 2008
• 年：2008
• 卷：36
• 期：5
• 页码：771-778
• 全文大小：144.3 KB

文摘

Behaviors characteristic of ADHD are common among preschool children, and as such, their clinical significance is oftentimes difficult to ascertain. Thus a focus on impairment is essential in determining the clinical significance of these behaviors. In order to explore the impact of impairment criteria on rates of diagnoses in inattentive/hyperactive children aged 36 through 60-months-old, we first developed, and psychometrically evaluated, the Children’s Problem Checklist (CPC) which was designed to assess psychosocial impairment associated with ADHD in a community sample of preschoolers (n = 394), and found its reliability and validity to be acceptable. We then examined the impact of the inclusion of various CPC-determined impairment criteria, over and above symptom criteria measured by the ADHD-RS-IV, using various cut points ranging from the 75th to 90th percentile of our community sample. This reduced the number of children meeting criteria for ADHD by 46–77 % . These findings are discussed in terms of the importance of using impairment criteria, rather than just severity of inattention, impulsivity and hyperactivity, when diagnosing ADHD in preschool children.