Measuring the concurrent, convergent, and incremental validity of a new adult ADHD symptom measure

The purpose of this study is to address the gap between the science and practice of adult Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) assessments by evaluating the concurrent, convergent, and incremental validity, as well as the clinical usefulness of Russell Barkley's ADHD Symptom Checklist, a new self-report measure of ADHD symptoms in adults. Although the research suggests that there are an abundance of adults who are unidentified as having this disorder, the most common method of diagnosis used by clinicians is to apply the DSM-IV-TR criteria to adults, which was designed for and field tested solely on children. This study is a cross-sectional investigation of an extant archival dataset that was gathered as part of the diagnostic assessment protocol of the University of Pennsylvania Adult ADHD Treatment and Research Program from October 2007 through January 2011. The goal of this study was to assess the overall validity of Barkley's Adult ADHD Symptom Checklist among a clinical sample of self- and other-referred adults with this disorder. Specifically, this researcher assessed for three types of validity: (1) concurrent validity using a point-biserial correlation to determine the relationship between Barkley's Checklist and the Selective Reminding Task-Continous Long-term Recall subscale (SRT-CLTR) , which served as the prototypical ADHD assessment measure for this study; (2) convergent validity using pearson correlations to establish the level of agreement in ADHD diagnosis between Barkley's Checklist and the existing self-report measures of adult ADHD (BADDS and CAARS); and (3) incremental validity using a binomial logistical regression in order to examine the effects of Barkley's checklist, the BADDS, and the CAARS on the assessment of adult ADHD. Barkley's Checklist showed high convergent validity with existing ADHD behavior rating scales but, in line with previous research, little relation to standardized tests of executive functioning. This study informs the expansion and revision of adult ADHD diagnostic procedures by suggesting the inclusions of both cognitive tests of executive functioning and rating scales for such assessments.