Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales 2nd Edition (CAARS™ 2)

The Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales 2nd Edition (CAARS™ 2) is a measure that provides improved accuracy, greater insight, and enhanced utility for assessing and managing Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in adults.

The Conners Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS™; Conners, Erhardt, & Sparrow, 1999), first published more than 20 years ago, has played a crucial role in ADHD assessments in adults for over two decades.

Enhanced Content

• A new, comprehensive Response Style Analysis section has been added to improve the ability to detect problematic response styles, including enhanced validity scales to capture invalid responding.
• Addition of research-based item-level indicators to screen for issues that may require clinical follow-up (suicidality, self-harm, anxiety, depression).
• In addition to retaining the best-performing items from the original CAARS, dozens of new rationally derived and empirically evaluated items were added to the Content Scales, and the scale structure has been updated.
• The DSM Symptom Scales have been updated and aligned with current DSM symptom criteria.
• The updated CAARS 2‒ADHD Index, derived from advanced statistical techniques, aims to optimize its accuracy in discriminating between individuals with and without ADHD.
  Items were also created to assess impairment and functional outcomes typically experienced by individuals with ADHD symptoms.

Purchase of CAARS 2 credits includes online access to the CAARS 2 Manual. Free training for CAARS 2 will also be available through MAC+. This training introduces CAARS 2 and includes an overview of administration, scoring, report generation, and interpretation guidelines, and an illustrative case study. Training becomes available after the product has been purchased, an account has been created and the product has been enabled.

Updated and Expanded Norms

New normative data were derived from a large sample selected to be representative of the North American population based on the 2018 U.S. census and the 2016 Canadian census proportions (balanced equally by age and stratified by gender, race/ethnicity, education level, and geographic region).

An ADHD Reference Sample has been added to allow examiners to compare an individual’s scores to those produced by others already diagnosed with ADHD.

Extended Upper Age Range

The oldest normative sample age group in the original CAARS was 50 years and older.

The CAARS 2 Normative Sample includes stratified samples for seven age groups, with an upward expansion to include 50–59, 60–69, and 70+ years to ensure precision when assessing older adults.

Increased Fairness and Inclusivity

Increased fairness and inclusivity with gender-inclusive language, culturally sensitive items, and items and scales that show no evidence of measurement bias with respect to gender, race/ethnicity, country of residence, or education level.

Multiple Reference Sample

Examiners can now select reference samples from the General Population or individuals with ADHD. Both reference samples include the option to compare against a Combined Gender group, a Gender Specific–Males group, and a Gender Specific–Females group. The report allows a convenient side-by-side comparison of rater scores with multiple groups.

Increased Alignment with Conners 4th Edition (Conners 4™)

The CAARS 2 and Conners 4 (a measure of symptoms of and impairments associated with ADHD, along with common co-occurring problems and disorders for youth aged 6 to 18 years) were designed to be aligned and comparable to one another to facilitate a lifespan approach to ADHD assessment and monitoring and to simplify the integration of information as adolescents transition into adulthood.

Flexible and Simplified Purchase Options

Each CAARS 2 online form purchase can be used to generate reports for any of the CAARS 2 forms - the choice is yours:

• Observer Report
• Self-Report
• Short Observer Report
• Short Self-Report
• ADHD Index (Observer) Report
• ADHD Index (Self) Report