Assessing the construct validity of the adjustment scales for children and adolescents

This study examined the construct validity of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA; McDermott, Marston, & Stott, 1993). Distinct group differences and discriminative validity (Youngstrom, Findling, Danielson, & Calabrese, 2001) were examined with a sample of 106 students ranging from grade I through 6 (53 met the DSM-IV/DISC-IV criteria for ADHD, and 53 were members of a randomly selected and matched control group). Statistically significant group differences were observed with large effect sizes. Further, the ASCA demonstrated near perfect discrimination of the two groups and all diagnostic efficiency statistics were highly supportive in differentiating students meeting DISC-IV/DSM-IV criteria for ADHD from a random and matched control group.