A Rating Scale to Differentiate between Conduct Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The symptoms of conduct disorder and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) have many overlaps. These two disorders are considered to be the two most common psychiatric disorders among school aged children. It is notable to consider that when ever one of these disorders is present as the primary disorder with clinical manifestations, the other is believed to co morbid and coexisted with the first disorder. The present study was designed to develop a standard scale for diagnosis and grading of these disorders in the elementary schools children.

This study was performed on a sample of 800 male and female elementary school children, who were selected through a normalized cluster sampling procedure in Tehran. The scale was administered to the student via their teachers, as well as the relevant professionals and the obtained results were gathered for further analysis.

Factor analysis showed that 3 factors, dysthymic, aggressiveness, and oppositional defiant, could be involved in conduct disorder rating scale and the 3 factors, lavk of attention, hyperactivity, and aggression could be involved in ADHD rating scale. These 6 factors explained 0.69 of total variance. The criteria validity coefficient for conduct disorder rating scale was 0.79, and for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder rating scale was 0.76. Cronbakh’s alpha coefficient, spilt half coefficient, and test-retest coefficient for conduct disorder rating scale was 0.95, 0.87, and 0.91, and for attrition deficit hyperactivity rating scale was 0.96, 0.82, and 0.92

Based on the obtained factors which were approved in their content by relevant professionals, and considering the validity and reliability of the scale, it seems that the scale is suitable enough to be considered as a screening instrument in the clinical and research contexts.