Age- and Sex-Specific Norms for ADHD Symptoms and Performance on the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale
- 1Nationwide Children's Hospital
Abstract
Objective: To provide national norms, percentiles, and results of factor analyses for the ADHD symptoms and performance items on the parent-report and self-report versions of the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale (VAS) for youth ages 6 to 17. We hypothesized that symptom items would demonstrate separate inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity factors, performance items would demonstrate interpretable latent dimensions, measurement invariance would be supported across age and sex, and symptom ratings would vary systematically by age and sex.
Method: In a nationally stratified survey conducted in 2025, 2,230 parents of youth aged 6-17 years and 996 adolescents aged 12-17 years completed Vanderbilt Assessment Scale items. Both versions asked about the frequency of 18 ADHD symptoms and performance in 8 domains. To evaluate the psychometric properties and age-related normative curves of the VAS across parent- and youth-report forms, we conducted exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance testing. We also generated age and sex-specific norms.
Results: Factor analyses produced the expected two symptom factors and two performance factors. Developmental and sex-specific patterns of ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms indicated that after increasing slightly during the preadolescent years, parent ratings of inattention symptoms declined and remained stable. In contrast, ratings of hyperactivity/impulsivity declined steadily with age. Normative data were generated using GAMLSS estimated centiles from fitted probability distributions.
Conclusions: This study provides norms for the parent-report and adolescent self-report VAS. Findings underscore the importance of using sex- and age-based norms to better inform estimates of severity and diagnostic decision making.
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BibTeX
@misc{evans2026sexspecific,
title = {{Age- and Sex-Specific Norms for ADHD Symptoms and Performance on the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale}},
author = {S. W. Evans and S. K. Bhaskar and Y. Liu and E. A. Youngstrom and J. S. Owens and E. Rosenthal},
howpublished = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.64898/2026.10.12.26365313},
url = {https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.12.26365313v1},
note = {CC BY-ND},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Age- and Sex-Specific Norms for ADHD Symptoms and Performance on the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale
AU - S. W. Evans
AU - S. K. Bhaskar
AU - Y. Liu
AU - E. A. Youngstrom
AU - J. S. Owens
AU - E. Rosenthal
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/12
PB - medRxiv
DO - 10.64898/2026.10.12.26365313
UR - https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.10.12.26365313v1
AB - Objective: To provide national norms, percentiles, and results of factor analyses for the ADHD symptoms and performance items on the parent-report and self-report versions of the Vanderbilt Assessment Scale (VAS) for youth ages 6 to 17. We hypothesized that symptom items would demonstrate separate inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity factors, performance items would demonstrate interpretable latent dimensions, measurement invariance would be supported across age and sex, and symptom ratings would vary systematically by age and sex. Method: In a nationally stratified survey conducted in 2025, 2,230 parents of youth aged 6-17 years and 996 adolescents aged 12-17 years completed Vanderbilt Assessment Scale items. Both versions asked about the frequency of 18 ADHD symptoms and performance in 8 domains. To evaluate the psychometric properties and age-related normative curves of the VAS across parent- and youth-report forms, we conducted exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and measurement invariance testing. We also generated age and sex-specific norms. Results: Factor analyses produced the expected two symptom factors and two performance factors. Developmental and sex-specific patterns of ratings of inattention and hyperactivity/impulsivity symptoms indicated that after increasing slightly during the preadolescent years, parent ratings of inattention symptoms declined and remained stable. In contrast, ratings of hyperactivity/impulsivity declined steadily with age. Normative data were generated using GAMLSS estimated centiles from fitted probability distributions. Conclusions: This study provides norms for the parent-report and adolescent self-report VAS. Findings underscore the importance of using sex- and age-based norms to better inform estimates of severity and diagnostic decision making.
ER -