Teacher ratings and the assessment of attention deficits in school age children

Abstract

The ability of teachers to identify children with attention difficulties was assessed among Cypriot and Canadian school children using the Attention Checklist (ACL; Das, 1986). Data were collected among Grade 4 children in Cyprus, and then compared to the sample of the Canadian original study reporting normative data. Twelve teachers of 258 children (127 males and 131 females) completed the ACL for each of their students. The mean age of the group was Mage = 9.91 (SD = 0.43). A principal component factor analysis yielded the single-factor structure of the instrument that had been obtained in the Canadian study, accounting for 74.5% of the variance. Cronbach's Alpha and Guttman-Split Half reliability scores were also consistently high with the Cypriot sample: a = .968 and a = .952. Further, Grade 4 descriptive statistics of the total scale were similar to the Canadian data. In both cultural contexts ACL scores were positively correlated with scores on cognitive measures of attention (from the Cognitive Assessment System, CAS; Naglieri & Das, 1997), indicating, consequently, that teacher ratings using the ACL are sufficiently sensitive in identifying those students who have difficulties with selective attention and behavioral inhibition. Indeed, the groups identified by teachers, as high and low attention groups defined by median split, appeared to be significantly different based on their performance on the cognitive measures of attention. Overall, results supported the convergent validity of the ACL, with the screening device showing satisfactory psychometric properties in its Greek version with a normal population. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)