Challenges of Developing an Observable Parent-Reported Measure: A Qualitative Study of Functional Impact of ADHD in Children

Findings illustrate the substantial functional impairment associated with childhood ADHD while highlighting the challenges of developing informant-reported outcome measures limited to observable content. Because ADHD has an impact on children's functioning in a wide range of contexts, a parent-report measure that includes only observable content may fail to capture important aspects of functional impairment. Approaches for addressing this observability challenge are discussed.