Agreement of adolescent ratings with mother ratings and teacher ratings of ADHD symptom groups: A correlated trait-correlated method minus one analysis

• CT-C(M − 1) model examined agreement of adolescent, mother and teacher ratings of ADHD.
• Adolescent ratings did not add addition information over parent ratings.
• Adolescent ratings added addition information over teacher ratings.
• Adolescent reports not needed for ADHD diagnosis when mother reports are used.

This study examined the level of agreement of adolescent ratings with mother ratings, and adolescent ratings with teacher ratings of the inattention (IA) and hyperactivity/impulsivity (HI) symptom groups of ADHD. A total of 214 adolescents provided self-ratings of IA and HI, and their IA and HI were also rated by their mothers and teachers. The correlated trait-correlated method minus one model was applied, with adolescent ratings as the reference method, and the other two ratings as the non-reference methods. The findings indicated no additional variance in adolescent ratings for IA and HI that could not be accounted by mother ratings of IA and HI, respectively. In contrast, there was additional variance in adolescent ratings for IA and HI that could was not accounted by teacher ratings of IA and HI, respectively. The findings suggest that when diagnosing ADHD in adolescents, their reports of their own ADHD behaviors are not needed when mother reports of such behaviors are used.