Abstract
ABSTRACT The aims of the present study were i) to translate and adapt the Conners Teacher Rating Scale (CTRS) for use in Turkey, 2) to find the factor structure of CTRS, 3) to find the reliability of CTRS, 4) to examine the prevalence rate for Turkish nursery school children, and finally 5) to find the predictive variables of hyperactivity and the other factors of CTRS. A pilot study and a main study were conducted. In the pilot study, a group of children which had thirty-nine boys and twenty- five girls of two to six years of age were selected who were at tending five nursery schools in Ankara. Two scales were administered s the CTRS and the Parent Scale (PS) which was developed by the researcher to find the predictors of hyperactivity. The CTRSs were scored by teachers of selected children and the PSs were administered to the parents. Since the characteristics of children in this study were roughly equal to the later selected subjects and not many changes were done on the completed questionnaires, they were included in the main study. In the main study, with the inclusion of the children in the pilot study, two hundred and sixty three boys and two hundred and fourty one girls were used as subjects. The results showed that six factors for the total population were extracted. They explained 57.2 `A of the variance. The strongest factor which has fifteen items was named asHyperactivity /Conduct Problems factor. It accounted for 30.8 % of the total variance. The second factor was named as Aggressive/ Impulsive accounted for 9.4 `/. of the total variance and had six items. The correlation between these two factors was high (r =.70). The third factor, Reserved/Sensitive (or Introverted), accounted for 6.2 % of variance and seven items. Contributions of factor four, five and six were 4.1 %, 3.5 % and 3.2 7., respectively. Reliabilities (internal consistencies) of obtained factors were assessed by means of Cronbach's Alpha coefficients. The highest coefficients were.92,.89, and.74 for the first, second and third factors, respectively. Internal consistencies of factors for boys and girls showed that obtained factors have high reliabilities for sexes as for total sample. Boys were found to be more hyperactive than girls. This was understood from the high prevalence rate for boys (2.2 7.). Sig nificance of this difference was tested by means of one- way analysis of variance that showed it's significance. From the regression analysis, it was found that higher scores on Hyperacti vi ty/Conduct Problems factor goes with low achievement on spare time and handwork activities at school, duration of familiarity to teacher, young age of child, less problem on nocturnal enuresis, and low income of the family. Seperate regression analyses were conducted for boys and girls. It was found for boys that the higher the Hyperacti vity/Conduct Problems score, the lower the abilities on spare time and vilanguage activities at school, the higher the frequency of respiratory system illness, the lower the age, the lower the income, the latency in toilet training age concerning feces at night, the higher the father age, and the higher the probability of being firstborns whereas for girls, the higher the familiarity to teacher, the lower the achievement on language and handwork activities, the lower the age, the higher the weight at birth, the higher the age of talking, the lower the problem of nocturnal and diurnal enuresis, the higher the accident rate, the higher the achievement in play activity the higher the scores on Hyperactivity/Conduct Problems factor. These findings were discussed in the light of findings in literature, developmental changes, cultural expectations and other variables of samples» Also, suggestions for further studies were given» vi a
