Development of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) scales for assessment of ADHD in preschool and elementary school children

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The diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) typically relies on traditional assessment methods, including the clinical interview and rating scales, administered in clinical settings and commonly on a single occasion. Compared to traditional approaches to assessment, ecological momentary assessment (EMA) provides repeated, real-time data in real-world settings thus enhancing the ecological validity of assessment. Though EMA has been recognized as a useful method for diverse phases of mental health care by researchers and practitioners, it has not still been established in clinical assessment of ADHD, which may be due to a lack of well-developed EMA based tools that their validity and reliability has been accurately examined. The current project aims at developing EMA based parent and teacher report scales for assessment of core symptoms of ADHD, executive functioning (EF), functional impairment, and comorbid disorders with ADHD in preschool (4-6 years) and elementary school children (6-11 years). Content validity of each EMA scale will be examined by assessing relevance, comprehensibility, and comprehensiveness of items. Parents and teachers will be asked to complete rating scales assessing the child’s core symptoms of ADHD, EF, functional impairment, and comorbid disorders with ADHD at baseline. For a period of 25 days, parents and teachers will report on the child’s core symptoms of ADHD, EF, functional impairment, and comorbid disorders with ADHD using EMA scales two times a day and once a day, respectively. Feasibility, acceptability, between-person and within-person reliability, and construct validity of each EMA scale will be assessed.