Validity of the Child Psychiatric Hospital Teacher Questionnaire for the assessment of ADHD. Teacher's version

Abstract

Introduction. Teacher's rating scales for the evaluation of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHAD) and conduct disorders have been shown to be useful and valid tools. The Child Psychiatric Hospital Teacher Questionnaire (CPHTQ) of the Hospital Psiquiatrico Infantil Dr Juan N. Navarro was designed for the assessment of ADHD symptoms, externalizing symptoms and school functioning difficulties of children and adolescents.

Methods. Internal consistency, criterion validity, construct validity and sensitivity of the scale to changes in symptom severity were evaluated in this study.

Results. The scale was administered to 282 teachers of children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 years who came to a unit specialized in child psychiatry. The validity analysis of the instrument showed that the internal consistency measured by Cronbach's alpha was 0.94. The factorial analysis yielded 5 factors accounting for 59.1% of the variance: Hyperactivity and conduct symptoms, predatory, conduct disorder, inattentive, poor functioning and motor disturbances. The CPHTQ scores on the scale showed positive correlation with the Clinical Global Impression (CGI) scale in the patients' response to drug treatment.

Conclusions. The CPHTQ shows adequate validity characteristics that demonstrate its utility in the evaluation of patients with ADHD and its comorbidity with other behavior disorders.