ADHD Assessment Comparison:

Conners’ Rating Scales – Revised (CRS-R) vs. ADHD Symptom Checklist-4 (ADHD-SC4)

CRS-R ADHD-SC4
Title Conners’ Rating Scales – Revised ADHD Symptom Checklist-4
Authors Conners. C. Keith Gadow, Kenneth D.; Sprafkin, Joyce
Publisher Multi-Health Systems, Inc. Checkmate Plus Ltd.
Date of 1989 1997
Publication
Forms Teacher-reporting Long and Short forms; Parent- Teacher and Parent checklists
reporting Long and Short forms; Adolescent self-report
Long and Short forms
Groups Groups ages 3-17; ages 12-17 can complete self-report Individuals ages 3-18
Applicable to scales
Cost $425 per kit (includes manual, 25 parent/teacher/self- $63 per kit (includes 50 checklists, 50 symptom
report long forms, 25 parent/teacher/self-report short count score sheets, 50 symptom severity score sheets,
forms, 25 Global Index – Teacher forms, 25 Global and manual)
Index – Parent forms, 15 CRS-R Treatment Progress
Color Plot, and 100 Teacher Information Forms)
Time Required to Between five and twenty minutes Five minutes
Administer
Purpose and Screening measure; treatment monitoring device; Screening instrument for behavioral symptoms of
Nature of research instrument; direct clinical/diagnostic aid ADHD and ODD
Instrument
Description of Four point Likert scale from 0-3: not true at all (never, Four point Likert scale (never, sometime, often, very
Test Items and seldom), just a little time (occasionally), pretty much true often) with items divided into four categories:
scoring (often, quite a bit); very much true (very often, very ADHD, ODD, Peer Conflict, and Stimulant Side
frequent) Effects;
Scoring – symptom count scores and symptom
severity scores (measure degree of behavioral
deviance compared with norms sample
Training General understanding of basic principles and limitations No specific training. However, the authors emphasize
required to of psychological testing, especially in terms of that a qualified professional should be consulted for a
administer interpreting tests; Familiarity with manual and standards diagnosis
for educational and psychological testing; Member(s) of
professional associations with relevant ethical codes
Technical Automatically converts scores into T scores with a Hand-scored
Considerations graphical display of results
Norms sample of over 8,000 subjects; separate norms available Similar number of males and females in each age
for boys and girls at each 3 year age interval for parent grouping for each geographical area; two regional
and teacher forms subsamples primarily Caucasian, third subsample
(Missouri) more heterogeneous sample, but
proportion of minorities still smaller than general
population
Reliability Most forms of the assessment exceeded a moderate
reliability coefficient (.80); the long version of the
Conners-Wells’ Adolescent Self-Report Scale had
coefficients ranging from .83 to .88, but the sample used
consisted of only 75 subjects; Test-retest reliability was
moderate to high on all forms of the test with coefficients
ranging from .47 to .88 over an administration interval of
six to eight weeks
Validity Internal validity found by examining the inter-
correlations between the test’s subscales with result of
being identical across genders; Calculations for
convergent and discriminant validity resulted in low to
moderate correlations between parent and teacher
ratings, ranging from .12 to .47 for males and from .21 to
.55 for females
test-retest reliabilities for the preschool sample
ranged from r = .64 to r = .72 (p<.0001) for the
ADHD and ODD scales; less reliable statistic of r =
.35 (p<.05) for the Peer Conflict scale
Concurrent validity evidenced by the ADHD and
ODD categorical scores corresponding well with
comparable rating scales from other commonly used
ADHD assessments; parent-completed ADHD-SC4
displayed moderate to large positive correlations (.44
to .81) with relevant subscales of the Child Behavior
Checklist and the Mothers’ Method for Subgrouping;
the Teacher’s Rating Scale of ADHD-SC4 also
shared moderate to large positive correlations (.45 to
.88) to relevant subscales of the IOWA Conners’
Teacher’s Rating. The sensitivity of the ADHD and
ODD scales for identifying known cases of disorders
is moderately high, confirming predictive validity
(Gadow & Sprafkin, 1997). The test also
 successfully distinguishes the clinical and nonclinical
populations used in studies as well as regular and
special education students on the teacher forms,
ensuring discriminant validity
Cross-cultural Unknown due to scarcity of distinguishable information Unknown; samples were geographically isolated to
Fairness of subjects and under-representation of minority groups New York suburbs, and schools in Wisconsin and
Missouri; minority populations were under-
represented
Practicality Very practical; choice between long and short versions of Very practical; minimal amount of brief items; well-
scales; variety of sources for information (teacher, organized; easy to use; short duration
parent, self-reporting adolescent); easy to use; easy to
understand items; short duration
Aids to User Automatic standardized scoring; easy-to-interpret graph None
Sample Teacher (Long): ADHD category:
Questions Defiant difficulty paying attention
Restless in the “squirmy sense” loses things
Parent (Long): fidgets with hands and feet; squirms in seat
Angry and resentful ODD category:
Is always “on the go” or acts as if driven by a motor Loses temper
Argues with adults
Peer Conflict category:
Grabs things from other children
 Hits, pushes, or trips other children
Stimulant Side Effects category:
Irritable
Anxious
Spaced out, blank stares

References

Conners, C.K. (1989). Conners’ Rating Scales – Revised [Assessment and manual]. North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems,

Inc.

Gadow, K.D., & Sprafkin, J. (1997). ADHD Symptom Checklist-4 [Assessment and manual]. Stony Brook, NY: Checkmate Plus, Ltd.