The application of the Conners' Rating Scales to a Sudanese sample: an analysis of parents' and teachers' ratings of childhood behaviour problems.

The aim of the current study was to assess the equivalence of Sudanese and North American versions of the Conners' Rating Scales. The reliability, internal consistency, factor score intercorrelation, levels of sex differences and prevalence of symptoms found with Sudanese Arabic adaptations of the parent and teacher scales were compared with previously reported data from North American studies. The scales were translated into Sudanese Arabic, backtranslated and piloted among teachers and parents. These scales were administered to parents and teachers from a stratified normative sample of 300 families with children between 6 and 10 years of age. Both versions of the questionnaire displayed high levels of reliability and satisfactory internal consistency. The associations of ratings by Sudanese adults differed from those typically seen in North American samples in a number of ways. There was little evidence of the existence of broadband distinctions between internalizing and externalizing problems, practically no sex differences, only nonspecific associations between parent and teacher ratings and, most strikingly, very low levels of behaviour problems reported. The results provide evidence of the potential utility of the Sudanese versions of the Conners' Rating Scales while raising important questions about cultural differences in the structure and associations of behaviour problems and the appropriateness of applying North American norms to other cultural groups. Future research should look to supplement studies using adaptations of scales developed in Western settings with more open-ended questions about problems of specific significance to Sudanese parents.