Indicators of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Adolescents: Evaluation among Multiple Informants

Abstract

The prevalence rates of emotional and behavioral problems in adolescence suggest that their identification through different informants is relevant for the treatment and prevention of clinical conditions. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the association and agreement pattern regarding the indicators of internalizing and externalizing problems and total problems among adolescents, their families and teachers. Seventy adolescents, 70 family members and 21 teachers, who answered, respectively, the Youth Self Report and the Child Behavior Checklist in their version for parents and teachers participated in this study. There was greater concordance in the evaluation of adolescents and relatives than of teachers and adolescents and lack of agreement between family members and teachers. In addition, adolescents showed more indicators of internalizing problems. Thus, it is confirmed the need to contemplate multiple informants in the evaluation of emotional/behavioral difficulties of adolescents, with a view to its better understanding and detailing.

Cross-informant ratings on emotional and behavioral problems in Nepali adolescents: A comparison of adolescents’ self-reports with parents’ and teachers’ reports

“…We found a low level of teacher-adolescent agreement for all types of problems, which aligns with findings from Western cultures [7,25,27]. The highest teacher-adolescent agreement in our study was found for Externalizing Problems, followed by Attention Problems and Somatic Complaints, whereas the lowest level of agreement was found for Thought Problems.…”

“…Therefore, an established gold standard in the assessment of mental health in adolescents is to combine information from various sources, including adolescents, parents, and teachers [3][4][5][6]. Adult informants are the most common sources and can provide critical information about how adolescents function in everyday settings such as the home and school [2,7,8]. However, for a comprehensive evaluation of mental health, it is also vital to draw information from the adolescents themselves [9,10].…”

“…Studies suggest that adolescents report higher internalizing problems than parents, such as somatization and anxiety [ 7 , 12 ]. The lower parent reports of internalizing problems suggest that parents tend to underestimate adolescents’ emotional distress [ 21 ].…”

Transpersonal Gratitude, Emotional Intelligence, Life Contentment, and Mental Health Risk Among Adolescents and Young Adults

“…The reason for which could be the obvious depression, anxiety, stress observed by the both at-risk populations due to the challenges of transition from one age group to the next one (Collins & Munoz-Solomando, 2018;Nebhinani& Jain, 2019). The major challenges for adolescents constitute of bodily changes (i.e., development of secondary sex characteristics) (Kar, Choudhury, & Singh, 2015;McAteer et al, 2017;Pringle et al, 2016), peer group pressure Preprints (www.preprints.org) | NOT PEER-REVIEWED | Posted: 25 July 2020 doi:10.20944/preprints202007.0620.v1 (Moldes, Biton, Gonzaga, & Moneva, 2019;Singh, 2017;Tripathy, 2018), behavioral and emotional disturbances (Borba & Marin, 2018;Osman, Khalaf, Omar, & Ismail, 2019;Williams, Scott, & Aarons, 2018). The young adults, on the other hand, face challenges of transition from adolescent to adulthood (Fegert, Hauth, Banaschewski, & Freyberger, 2016;Switek & Easterlin, 2018), financial pressure (Dewilde, Hubers, & Coulter, 2018;Lennartz, Arundel, & Ronald, 2016;Stein et al, 2013), conflict at the stage of isolation vs. intimacy (Mackinnon, De Pasquale,, & Pratt, 2016), personal development (Bonnie et al, 2015), and change in outlook towards life (Switek & Easterlin, 2018).…”

Career Adaptability in the 9th Year: Efficacy of an Intervention in Two Consecutive School Years

“…These challenges make adolescence a particularly important period for the design, performance, and evaluation of vocational interventions that enable such attitudes and support career transitions. In many cases, the physical and psychological changes associated with adolescence add up to career indecision (Borba & Marin, 2018;Carvalho, 2015).…”