Abstract
Abstract:
Recognizing ADHD symptoms during adolescent years maybe challenging. Multi-informant assessment has been implicated to facilitate the diagnostic process. However, disagreement between different informants is common, creating problems in clinical practice. Parents, adolescents and teachers report ADHD symptoms from their own perspectives and biases. Several other factors such as nature of the symptoms, different settings where behavior is observed, cultural values, parental education and stress, contribute to influence agreement between informants. It is important for clinicians to understand why disagreement occurs rather than disregard the information as less significant. Each informant provides unique information and contributes significantly to a comprehensive overview of the clinical features. This paper reviews agreement between informants in reporting ADHD symptoms among adolescents, explores factors contributing to disagreement, and discusses strategies to harmonize information from the different informants.