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The Effects of Instructions on Mothers’ Ratings of Child Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms

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Abstract

We examined whether instructional materials describing how to rate child ADHD symptoms would improve the accuracy of mothers’ ratings of ADHD symptoms presented in standard child behavior stimuli, and whether instructions would be equally effective across a range of maternal depressive symptoms and family incomes. A community sample of 100 mothers with 5 to 12 year old sons were randomly assigned to either receive or not receive the instructions. All mothers watched standard video recordings of boys displaying nonproblem behavior, ADHD symptoms, ADHD plus oppositional behaviors, or ADHD plus anxious behaviors, and then rated the ADHD symptoms of the boys in the videos. These ratings were compared to ratings of the boys’ ADHD symptoms made by objective coders. Results indicated an interaction such that the instructional materials improved the agreement between mothers’ and coders’ ratings, but only for mothers at lower family income levels. The instructional materials improved all mothers’ open-ended responses regarding knowledge of ADHD. All mothers rated more ADHD symptoms in boys with comorbid oppositional or anxious behaviors, and this effect was not reduced by the instructional materials. The potential utility of these instructions to improve the accuracy of ratings of child ADHD symptoms is explored.

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Notes

  1. Instructional materials are available from the first author.

  2. Because mothers rated only a brief sample of the child’s behavior, we used the scale anchors of “Not at all, Just a little, Pretty much, and Very much”, rather than the anchors provided with the ADHD-IV Rating Scale.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research to Charlotte Johnston, Margaret Weiss, Candice Murray, and Lorelei Faulkner. We thank Jasmine Carey, Kathy Chan, Jonathan Jassy, Kailee Penner, Mandeep Gurm, and Deb Baldarelli for their assistance, the children who provided the stimulus materials, and the mothers who participated in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Children’s and Women’s Health Center of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C., Canada

    Margaret Weiss & Candice Murray

  2. Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, B. C., V6T 1Z4, Canada

    Charlotte Johnston & Natalie Miller

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  1. Charlotte Johnston
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  2. Margaret Weiss
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  3. Candice Murray
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  4. Natalie Miller
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Correspondence to Charlotte Johnston.

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Johnston, C., Weiss, M., Murray, C. et al. The Effects of Instructions on Mothers’ Ratings of Child Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms. J Abnorm Child Psychol 39, 1099–1110 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9532-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-011-9532-4

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