The investigation of ADHD prevalence in kindergarten children in northeast Iran and a determination of the criterion validity of Conners' questionnaire via clinical interview.
Conners parent-teacher forms screen ADHD in Iranian kindergarteners with 90% accuracy, echoing adult findings and warning that parent-only data fade in kids with ID.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Zahra and colleagues visited kindergartens in northeast Iran. They asked parents and teachers to fill out the Conners questionnaire.
Then a clinician interviewed each child to see if the child truly had ADHD. They compared the two sets of answers to see how well the form worked.
What they found
About 12 out of every 100 kindergarteners met criteria for ADHD. The Conners form caught 90 out of 100 true cases. It also labeled 19 out of 100 typical kids as possible ADHD.
Those numbers mean the screen is good at flagging kids who need a closer look.
How this fits with other research
Taylor et al. (2011) looked at 14 adult ADHD scales. They found the Conners adult form is also the best pick for grown-ups. Together the two studies show the Conners family works across the lifespan.
Matson et al. (2004) tested ADHD rating scales in children with intellectual disability. Teacher forms held up well, but parent forms lost reliability over time. That warns us to double-check parent-only Conners data in kids with ID.
Gan et al. (2026) adapted a toddler autism screen for China. Like Zahra, they showed a western tool can work after simple translation and local checking.
Why it matters
If you serve preschoolers, you now have data that the Conners parent-teacher short form is a solid first gate. Use it during intake, but always follow with a clinical interview. Remember that teacher data are steadier than parent data when ID is in the mix.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study, the prevalence of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in kindergarten children in northeast Iran was investigated, and the criterion validity of Conners' parent-teacher questionnaire was evaluated through the use of clinical interviews. This study was a cross-sectional descriptive research project with children in kindergartens that was supported by the Behzisti Organization, which included 155 kindergartens and 4143 children. To study the prevalence of ADHD, cluster random sampling was used; 1083 children were chosen as a reference, and random sampling was used to determine the criterion validity. Twenty-two children scoring below a specified cut-off score and 32 children scoring above the cut-off score were interviewed. In the first stage, ADHD was assessed using Conners' parent-teacher questionnaire, and in the second stage, it was assessed with a clinical interview based on DSM-IV-TR criteria. Finally, the prevalence rate was evaluated with descriptive parameters, and the criterion validity was assessed using the tetracoric correlation coefficient. The prevalence of ADHD was estimated at 12.3% ± 2.12%. Moreover, test sensitivity and specificity were evaluated at 90.3% and 81.2%, respectively. Therefore, the criterion validity with α = 0.05 is 90.3%. The prevalence of ADHD among children was high, suggesting a need to screen all children for ADHD before school age. The Conners' questionnaire proved to be a good test for the primary screening of ADHD among kindergarten children.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2012 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2011.10.006