The prevalence of disorders among preschoolers was lower than in previous studies from the USA. Comorbidity was frequent and there was a male preponderance in ADHD and depression at this early age. These results underscore the fact that the most common disorders of childhood can already be diagnosed in preschoolers. However, rates of disorder in Norway may be lower than in the USA.

Two areas of recent research on parenting are examined: (i) Parenting problems in families with parental psychopathology, and (ii) parenting problems when children have psychiatric disorders. Review of literature showed that parental, as well as child, psychopathology represents major stressors for a family and substantially impacts parenting abilities. Two main dimensions of dysfunctional parenting occur in families with child or parental psychopathology: (i) Parental negativity, and (ii) various forms of ineffective discipline practices. For parents, the level of parental social functioning and responsiveness may be more crucial for parenting skills than psychiatric symptoms per se. For children, the impact of dysfunctional parenting seems to be non-specific for child outcome, related to both internalizing and externalizing disorders. However, evidence does point to links among parental negative, affectionless control and depression/anxiety in children, whereas inconsistent, disruptive parenting with insufficient monitoring is more characteristic of parents with conduct-disordered children.

Subjective, psychological variables such as mothers' level of depression and self-esteem of adolescents may be useful to consider when interpreting informant discrepancy concerning the mental problems of adolescents.

In this study, we explored informant characteristics as determinants of parent–teacher disagreement on preschoolers’ psychosocial problems. Teacher characteristics were included in the analyses, in addition to child and parent factors. Psychosocial problems of 732 4-year olds from a Norwegian community sample were assessed by parents and teachers (CBCL-TRF). Furthermore, teachers reported on their education, experience and relationship to the child. Parental stress and psychopathology were also measured. Teachers rated children considerably lower than their parents did, especially on internalizing problems. When teachers rated more child problems, this was strongly associated with conflict in the teacher–child relationship, which predicted disagreement more than other factors. The highest agreement was on boys’ externalizing problems. Girls’ behavior was rated much lower by teachers than boys’ behavior compared to parents’ ratings. Possible teacher perception biases are discussed, such as teacher–child conflict, non-identification of internalizing problems, and same-gender child preference.