Measuring teacher attitudes and expectations toward students with ADHD: Development of the Test of Knowledge About ADHD (KADD)

OBJECTIVE: The attitudes, expectations, and behaviors of teachers toward children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) may have a lasting impact on the academic self-efficacy and success of students with ADHD. Yet, to date there exists no standardized measure of teacher attitudes or expectations toward children with ADHD. The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure teacher attitudes and expectancies toward children with ADHD. METHOD: The Test of Knowledge About ADHD (KADD) was constructed based on the error-choice method, which is an indirect method of attitude measurement. This psychometric approach was utilized to reduce patterns of response distortions that produce systematic errors in direct attitudinal assessment. Elementary school teachers (N = 103) completed the error-choice instrument. CONCLUSION: Results indicated adequate to good internal consistency reliability for the KADD for this sample, with a Cronbach's coefficient alpha of 0.82. Additionally, results yielded initial discriminant evidence to suggest that the KADD has construct validity for this sample. Implications for the use of this instrument in applied areas are discussed.