ABSTRACT

Objective: Two studies examined the psychometric properties of the Multidimensional ADHD Rating Scale (MARS), which assesses ADHD symptoms, related functional impairment, and symptom validity (SV). Method: Study 1 used MARS item responses from college students with and without ADHD (with some of the latter group assigned to feign ADHD) to create an SV-index, and to identify optimal cut scores for the clinical (symptom and impairment) indexes. Study 2 cross-validated the findings on a new sample. Results: In both studies, malingerers reported more symptoms and impairment than participants with ADHD, who reported more symptoms and impairment than controls. Receiver operating characteristic analyses found very good discrimination of genuine ADHD from control cases by the clinical MARS indexes, and very good discrimination of genuine ADHD from malingered ADHD by the SV-index. Conclusion: This research provides initial support for the effectiveness of the MARS to detect simulated cases of malingering, and to differentiate ADHD from non-ADHD cases in college students.

摘要

目标：两项研究检查了多维 ADHD 评定量表 (MARS) 的心理测量特性，该量表评估 ADHD 症状、相关功能障碍和症状有效性 (SV)。方法：研究 1 使用来自患有和不患有 ADHD 的大学生的 MARS 项目反应（后一组被分配到假装 ADHD）来创建 SV 指数，并确定临床（症状和损伤）指数的最佳切分分数。研究 2 对新样本的发现进行了交叉验证。结果：在这两项研究中，伪装者报告的症状和损害比 ADHD 参与者更多，后者报告的症状和损害比对照组更多。接收器操作特征分析发现，临床 MARS 指数可以很好地区分真正的 ADHD 与对照病例，并且通过 SV 指数可以很好地区分真正的 ADHD 与伪造的 ADHD。结论：本研究为 MARS 检测模拟装病病例以及区分大学生多动症和非多动症病例的有效性提供了初步支持。