Recent evidence suggests that multi-informant assessments of children and adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and co-occurring problems are more likely to provide sufficient sensitivity and specificity for population screening and clinical use than single measures (De Los Reyes et al., 2015); however, the perspectives of children and adolescents are underrepresented in scientific studies (Caye et al., 2017; for review see Mulraney et al., 2022). The question remains whether children and adolescents are reliable sources of information about their own ADHD symptoms. This may point to the need to investigate the complex interplay between self- and other (i.e. teachers, parents) reported ADHD symptoms (e.g. hyperactivity, inattention) and other externalizing (e.g. aggression) and internalizing (e.g. anxiety) problems. This review aims to systematically analyze and examine existing empirical studies that have focused on the comparison of self-reported and other-reported ADHD symptoms and co-occurring behavior problems in children and adolescents with ADHD. The purpose is to evaluate (1) the overall inclusion of self-reports in the assessment process (2) the agreements between informants (3) which types of informants are frequently used and (4) the instruments utilized.

Eligible studies published over the past decade in four major databases (PubMed, ERIC, PsycINFO, Web of Science) and retrieved from educational and psychological peer-reviewed journals through a thorough manual hand-search process were identified. Following PRISMA 2020 (Brennan & Munn, 2021) guidelines for inclusion and exclusion criteria, the study focuses on prospective data collection of school-aged participants to minimize recall bias associated with retrospective data reported in previous studies (von Wirth et al., 2021).

Only 11 studies out of 467 selected studies published between 2003 and 2023 that involved a sample of diagnosed school-aged participants met the pre-defined inclusion criteria. Agreements of raters differ by (1) type of other informants (i.e. teachers or parents), (2) methodological procedures, (3) utilized assessment instruments and their psychometric properties, and (4) measured constructs. A variety of screening measures were utilized, with questionnaires predominating over interviews. In addition to teacher reports, parent reports were commonly included, with only one study gathering information from objective measurement methods. The review emphasizes that researchers who include self-reports need to be aware that young participants with ADHD often tend to underreport their behavior problems. Considering the strengths and limitations of the study, implications for practice and future research concerning existing inconsistencies in the conceptualization of externalizing problems are discussed.

Brennan, S. E., & Munn, Z. (2021). PRISMA 2020: A reporting guideline for the next generation of systematic reviews. JBI Evidence Synthesis, 19(5), 906–908. https://doi.org/10.11124/JBIES-21-00112 Caye, A., Machado, J. D., & Rohde, L. A. (2017). Evaluating parental disagreement in ADHD diagnosis: Can we rely on a single report from home? Journal of Attention Disorders, 21(7), 561–566. APA PsycInfo. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087054713504134 De Los Reyes, A., Augenstein, T. M., Wang, M., Thomas, S. A., Drabick, D. A. G., Burgers, D. E., & Rabinowitz, J. (2015). The validity of the multi-informant approach to assessing child and adolescent mental health. Psychological Bulletin, 141(4), 858–900. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038498 Mulraney, M., Arrondo, G., Musullulu, H., Iturmendi-Sabater, I., Cortese, S., Westwood, S. J., Donno, F., Banaschewski, T., Simonoff, E., Zuddas, A., Döpfner, M., Hinshaw, S. P., & Coghill, D. (2022). Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Screening Tools for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children and Adolescents. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 61(8), 982–996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2021.11.031 von Wirth, E., Mandler, J., Breuer, D., & Döpfner, M. (2021). The Accuracy of Retrospective Recall of Childhood ADHD: Results from a Longitudinal Study. Journal of Psychopathology & Behavioral Assessment, 43(2), 413–426.