Child and parent evaluations of depression and aggression in psychiatric inpatient children

Abstract

This investigation examined the agreement between children and their parents on measures of depression and aggression. A total of 120 inpatient children (ages 7-13) and their mothers and fathers independently completed self-report and interview measures that focused on the children's dysfunction. Children and their parents differed in their ratings of each symptom area, with children providing significantly less severe ratings than their parents. Children who met DSM III criteria for major depression or conduct disorder were significantly higher in their ratings of depression and aggression than children without these diagnoses, as reflected in both child and parent ratings. Child and parent ratings correlated in the low to moderate range on measures of children's symptoms, whereas mother and father ratings correlated in the moderate to high range. The correspondence between children and parents did not vary as a function of symptom area (depression and aggression) or assessment format (self-report and interviews). The results suggest that children are able to rate the severity of their dysfunction, although they tend to provide lower-bound estimates than do their parents.

Screening for children’s depression symptoms in Greece: the use of the Children’s Depression Inventory in a nation-wide school-based sample

“…When the cutoff point of 13 was taken as threshold, the prevalence rate was somewhat higher (14.96%) than the prevalence figures of self-reported depressive morbidity obtained from studies in general population, but still much lower than those obtained from studies using the cutoff point of 13 of the CDI [17,43]. Since previous studies [10,24,27,48] indicate that CDI can be better used as a continuous measure of depressive symptoms [10] rather than as an accurate discriminatory (through cutoff scores) instrument for depression, further research using CDI along with other validated diagnostic measures for psychopathology in both clinical and nonclinical Greek populations (questionnaires and/or structured interviews) is needed. The particular cultural influences on children's depressive symptom reporting is an issue that should be further explored in future research in order to investigate whether lower mean cores in CDI (compared to studies in non-Greek populations) reflect lower rates of depressive symptoms, differences in the perception of the CDI items, or even cultural differences in the expression of depressive symptomatology.…”

“…The cutoff score of 19, corresponding to the 90th percentile, has been considered suitable for screening in the general population, while the cutoff score of 13, corresponding to the 65th percentile, has been suggested as being adequate for screening purposes in clinical samples [52]. However, with regard to clinical samples, there is a substantial body of research indicating that CDI cutoff scores cannot accurately distinguish between depressed and non-depressed individuals [10,24,27,48]. It has been shown that in clinical samples, CDI can be used as a preliminary continuous measure of depressive symptoms rather than a single evaluation instrument for a diagnosis of depression [10].…”

The Role of Social Support and Social Context on the Incidence of Attempted Suicide Among Adolescents Living in Extremely Impoverished Communities

“…Hopelessness (a ¼ .65e.80) was created from a series of variables originally used by Kazdin et al [34]. The scale measures the respondents' attitude and outlook regarding future prospects.…”

Bias and Accuracy of Children's Perceptions of Peer Acceptance: Prospective Associations with Depressive Symptoms

“…Kovacs (1992) reported adequate internal consistency and retest reliability for the scale. Evidence for the validity of this measure is well documented (e.g., Kovacs, 1992;Saylor, Finch, Spirito, & Bennett, 1984;Kazdin, Esveldt-Dawson, Unis, & Rancurello, 1983). Internal consistency of the CDI for this sample was .85; retest reliability was .70.…”