Journal of Educational, Health and Community
Psychology Vol 12, No 1, 2023 E-ISSN 2460-8467
Wimbarti,
Kusrohmaniah.
236
ADHD among Indonesian Primary School Students:
Measurement and Prevalence
Supra Wimbarti
Center for Public Mental Health,
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada
supra@ugm.ac.id
Sri Kusrohmaniah
Center for Public Mental Health,
Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada
koes_psi@ugm.ac.id
Abstract
In Indonesia, adequate screening instruments for the early detection of attention deficit and
hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in primary school students is not available prior to the study. We aimed
to assess the Indonesian version of the Conners 3 Teacher Rating Scale (Conners 3-T) in an Indonesian
setting and assess the prevalence of ADHD in primary school children. The study participants
comprised 314 primary school students aged 6-12 years old. Conners 3-T was translated from English
to Bahasa Indonesia and back-translated into English. Those students suspected of ADHD were further
diagnosed by a senior child psychologist for diagnosis. The results showed that Conners 3-T has a good
psychometric quality (a = .96). The quality and accuracy of the screening tool with Receiver Operating
Characteristic analysis showed a discrimination value (Area Under Curve) of 75.5%, cut-off value of ≥
35 with sensitivity value of .67 and specificity of .62. Conclusion: This study indicated that Conners 3T
had good sensitivity and specificity as a screening tool. We also found that 45.85% of children were
suspected of ADHD symptoms. Further thorough psychological evaluation for diagnostic purposes
revealed 8.09% of these children were diagnosed with ADHD. We concluded that the prevalence of
children with ADHD in Indonesia is within the common range, and we recommend using the Indonesian
Conners 3-T to screen children suspected of ADHD in Indonesia.
Keywords: Conners 3 Teacher Rating Scale, neurodevelopment, sensitivity, specificity, cutting point,
screening tool.
Received 12 January 2023/Accepted 25 March 2023 ©Author all rights reserved.
Introduction
Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is one of the most prevalent neurodevelopmental
issue in primary school children. According to the American Psychiatric Association (American
Psychiatric Association, 2013), the prevalence of children with ADHD was currently at 5%. Over the
years, prevalence of ADHD in different countries varies. For example, Polanczyk, de Lima, Horta,
Biederman, and Rohde found that the global prevalence of ADHD is 5.29% (Polanczyk et al., 2007).