Impact of Child and Informant Gender on Parent and Teacher Ratings of
Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder
By: Arthur D. Anastopoulos, Kaicee K. Beal, Rachel J. Reid, Thomas J. Power, Robert Reid,
George J. DuPaul
Anastopoulos, A.D., Beal, K.K., Reid, R.J., Reid, R., Power, T.J., & DuPaul, G.J. (2018). Impact
of child and informant gender on parent and teacher ratings of attention-deficit/hyperactivity
disorder. Psychological Assessment, 30(10), 1390-1394. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pas0000627.
©American Psychological Association, 2018. This paper is not the copy of record and may
not exactly replicate the authoritative document published in the APA journal. Please do
not copy or cite without author's permission. The final article is available, upon
publication, at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/pas0000627
Abstract:
Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) rating scales typically provide normative tables
arranged according to child age, child gender, and type of informant, which facilitates addressing
the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders
developmental deviance requirement for diagnosing ADHD. Missing, however, is any
consideration of the gender of the informant. The purpose of this paper was to conduct an
exploratory examination of informant gender via secondary analyses of a large data set used to
standardize the ADHD Rating Scale-5. Two (informant gender) by two (child gender) ANOVAs
were conducted separately for parents and teachers using inattention (IN) symptoms,
hyperactive-impulsive (HI) symptoms, the total impairment score related to IN, and the total
impairment score for HI as dependent variables. Results showed that female parents rated male
children significantly higher on both IN symptoms and impairment related to IN than did male
parents. Female teacher ratings were also significantly higher than male teacher ratings for male
children in terms of HI symptoms and with respect to impairment ratings related to both HI and
IN. A significantly higher percentage of female parents (7.7%) identified male children as being
at risk for ADHD relative to male parents (4.1%). This same pattern emerged for female teachers
(11.9%) versus male teachers (5.3%). Such results suggest that informant gender may play a
clinically meaningful role in assessing ADHD in children and adolescents, which is consistent
with the developmental literature addressing gender stereotypes in children. Future research is
needed to determine whether similar informant gender differences exist in other rating scale
measures of ADHD.
Public Significance Statement