Concordance between adolescents and parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: Analysis of an Australian nationally representative sample

Abstract

Objective: Differences between adolescent self-reported and parent-reported emotional and behavioural difficulties may influence psychiatric epidemiological research. This study examined concordance between adolescents and their parents about mental health symptoms using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Methods: The study comprised a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 11–17 years who participated in the Second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing ( N = 2967). Matched adolescent and parent responses across the five Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire subscales (emotional problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, conduct problems and prosocial behaviour), as well as total difficulties and total impact scores were examined to estimate concordance. Concordance patterns were analysed by sex, after stratifying the sample by age group (younger adolescents: 11–14 years; older adolescents: 15–17 years). Results: Concordance was 86.7% for total difficulties, 77.5% for total impact and ranged from 82.4% to 94.3% across the five Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire subscales. There were no differences in concordance between sexes on the total difficulties score. Older females were more likely to disagree with their parents about emotional problems compared to males of the same age. Younger males were more likely to disagree with their parents compared to same-aged females about peer problems, hyperactivity, conduct problems and prosocial skills, as well as the impact of their problems. Older males were more likely to disagree with their parents about their prosocial skills compared to older females. Conclusion: Overall, concordance between adolescents and parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was largely driven by the high proportion of respondents who reported having no problems. Discordance on a subscale increased as the prevalence of problems in a sex and age demographic subgroup increased. These findings highlight the need for a multi-informant approach to detect emotional and behavioural difficulties in adolescents, particularly when assessing the impact of symptoms, as this subscale had the lowest concordance.

Almost half of children and adolescents had unmet need 6 months after their traumatic brain injury

“…These findings illustrate the importance of asking children themselves about their symptom levels, as symptom perception will be experienced differently between children and parents. A low to moderate concordance has been reported between reports form parents and children 29,30 . Multi‐informant reports from both parents and paediatric patients are therefore recommended.…”

“…A low to moderate concordance has been reported between reports form parents and children. 29,30 Multi-informant reports from both parents and paediatric patients are therefore recommended. These results highlight the importance of considering the perspectives of both parents and children and the This study was one of few longitudinal studies to examine the unmet needs of paediatric patients with TBIs who were treated in a publicly funded healthcare system.…”

Mental health symptoms in children and adolescents during COVID-19 in Australia

“…Our reliance on parent-report data for detecting youth mental health symptoms introduces the possibility that parents are less reliable reporters of youth mental health symptoms – particularly for adolescents’ (versus children’s) emotional symptoms (Van Roy et al, 2010). This highlights the importance of a multi-informant approach to obtain a richer and more accurate perspective of children’s mental health symptoms (Gray et al, 2021).…”

A comparison of sleep-wake patterns among school-age children and adolescents in Hong Kong before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…We record demographic and socioeconomic data of participants' households, including household size and household income. Students' electronic media use was assessed by the Media Activity Form (MAF) (16). For primary school student participants, one of their parents (or the primary caregiver) was interviewed by trained research staff for the presence of lifetime sleep disorders using the modified version of the structured diagnostic interview for sleep patterns and disorders (DISP) (15).…”

“…They were also interviewed for the presence of psychiatric disorders as defined by the 5 th version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-5) in the past 12 months using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children, 5 th version (DISC-5). For secondary school participants, interviews for sleep patterns were conducted with the students themselves, and a multi-informant approach was used for diagnostic interviews for mental disorders (16). All interviews took place at the participant's school in the pre-COVID phase, while video-conferencing was adopted during the COVID phase.…”