Cross-informant agreement on mental health outcomes in children with maltreatment histories: A systematic review.

Abstract

Objective: This systematic review and meta-analysis examined cross-informant agreement concerning mental health outcomes for maltreated children. This study provides important information to individuals working with maltreated children (e.g., clinicians, child welfare practitioners) who must make critical decisions related to safety, mental health, and permanency. Method: We retrieved 29 studies that collected mental health data for maltreated children using standardized instruments. We were able to examine 4 informant pairs and 7 mental health outcomes. Results: Agreement across children’s mental health outcomes was highest for child–caregiver pairs (small to large, significant effect sizes), followed by child–teacher and caregiver–teacher (small to medium, significant effect sizes) and then caregiver–caregiver (small, nonsignificant effect sizes) pairs. Agreement generally was highest for overt behaviors. Conclusions: It is important to include children as informants, gather teacher and caregiver data when assessing child internalizing difficulties, and examine specific maltreatment outcomes (e.g., traumatic stress). Clinically, it is critical to understand why different informants perceive a child’s functioning in different ways for purposes of prognosis and treatment planning for the child and his or her family. It is also critical to triangulate data sources when assessing for maltreatment impact and to consider data points that both converge and diverge when making appropriate safety and treatment plans.

Are all features of psychopathy associated with decreased health? Psychopathy, dysfunctional family characteristics, and health problems in convicts

“…They are positively associated with Factor 2 and all the health problems indicators. These relations were predicted by previous empirical research (Daversa, 2010;Gao et al, 2010;Farrington, 2006;Repetti et al, 2002;Romano, Weegar, Babchishin, & Saini, 2018). Furthermore, the data showed that Factor 2, especially the Lifestyle features, partially mediate the link between family dysfunctions and health status: the result which is in line with previous data on the role of impulsiveness and disinhibition in diminished health (Lovello, 2013).…”

Improving Interpretability of Subjective Assessments About Psychological Phenomena: A Review and Cross-Cultural Meta-Analysis

“…Work on intersubjectivity effects may also inform interpretations of subjective reports within specialty areas of Clinical Psychology, such as Forensic Psychology. In particular, researchers and practitioners often encounter great difficulty with interpreting divergence among reports about child mental health taken for the purposes of child maltreatment evaluations (for a review, see Romano, Weegar, Babchishin, & Saini, 2018). Indeed, in these evaluations, divergence between reports could arise, for instance, because of extraneous factors such as a motivation on the part of an informant to report socially desirable behaviors in an effort to influence a key outcome (e.g., custody placement).…”

A survey of mothers' experiences of shared parenting and domestic violence

“…Further research is also needed to explore these results with comparisons of women not reporting domestic violence. Children's impact was measured indirectly by mothers rather than through direct observation and this may influence these results given the previously reported differences in cross-informant consistency (Romano, Weegar, Babchishin, & Saini, 2018). Also, not all participants answered every question, and because some questions in the survey allowed for entry of free text, some responses were uninterpretable (e.g., "Canadian" as a race) and therefore some of the demographic responses do not sum to the total sample.…”