Construction and Validation of Questionnaires used for the Diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Children are different regarding the type of activities. Some of them are hyperactive characterized with unwanted, non-purposeful movements. Diagnosis of this disorder needs appropriate and precise methods.The purpose of this study is to analyze the structure and validity of questionnaires used for the diagnosis of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.Research population consisted of teachers of exceptional children and parents of hyperactive children. One hundred people (54 parents and 46 teachers) were selected using multistage and random sampling. Data were collected through questionnaires (exploratory factor analysis).Exploratory factor analysis indicated that the questionnaires used for the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder consist of 35 items and 5 factors, including memory and attention deficit (9 items), responsibility and organization (9 items), non-purposeful movements (8 items), cooperating with others (5 items), and impulsivity (4 items). The questionnaire has an adequate reliability (Cronbach's alpha for the entire questionnaire = 0.70, first factor = 0.85, second factor = 0.72, third factor = 0.81, fourth factor = 0.68, and fifth factor = 0.65). To determine the validity of the text, Adult Behavior Checklist (Barkley and Murphy, 1998) was used. Correlation coefficient was estimated as 0.295, which is significant at p<0.003. This is indicative of the adequate validity of the questionnaire.This study suggests that the questionnaire used for the diagnosis of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder is effective and has adequate reliability and validity.