Multi-Domain Predictors of Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms in Preschool Children: Cross-Informant Differences

Abstract

Existing research suggests that parent and teacher reports of children's behavior problems are often discrepant. The current study examined whether contextual (stress and family conflict), parent (depression), parenting (hostility, support, and scaffolding), and child factors (receptive vocabulary; negative affect, NA; effortful control, EC; inhibitory control, IC; attachment; and sensory regulation, SR) are related to parent-teacher reporting discrepancies. Participants included a community sample of 344 4-year-old children. A multi-informant approach was used to assess contextual, parent, parenting, and child factors. Parents and teachers completed the Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) scale of the Child Symptom Inventory. Consistent with previous data, there was poor agreement between parents and teachers (r =.17). After correcting for multiple comparisons, child effortful control, parent hostility, and family conflict were significant predictors of parent-rated symptoms of ODD symptoms but not teacher-rated ODD symptoms. Only family conflict was a significant predictor of discrepancies in parent and teacher ratings.

Preschool Oppositional Defiant Disorder: A Disorder of Negative Affect, Surgency, and Disagreeableness

“…However, low agreeableness, related to conscientiousness and effortful control, but measured at a lower hierarchical level of trait structure, exhibited prominent associations with ODD in this age range, particularly with the angry/irritable domain. This is in line with recent work by Burke and colleagues (2014) suggesting an irritability dimension within ODD and might be viewed as consistent with recent calls to subdivide ODD into two (vs. 3) symptom domains using an affective versus behavioral distinction (Herzhoff & Tackett, 2016; Lavigne et al, 2015) since our affective domain, characterized by angry/irritable symptoms, was specifically underpinned by low agreeableness, and this finding also found in relation in Burke et al (2014)’s 2-domain model (although it should be noted that such specificity was not found in relation to Lavigne et al’s [2015] model).…”

Early childcare type predicts children’s emotional and behavioural trajectories into middle childhood. Data from the EDEN mother–child cohort study

“…Second, children’s psychological and behavioural symptoms were reported by the mother and may have been influenced by maternal reporting style. Although research has shown that mothers tend to report somewhat higher levels of children’s problems than teachers,30 both types of informants are generally consistent and valid, particularly in early and middle childhood 31. Third, the time per day spent in childcare and childcare quality are not directly measured in our study.…”

Dimensions of Oppositional Defiant Disorder in Young Children: Model Comparisons, Gender and Longitudinal Invariance

“…First, findings are limited by the use of parent report of symptoms. Although parent report is the most common way in which symptom reports are obtained in young children, studies comparing reports of symptoms of ODD for teacher and parents suggest that they are source-specific (Drabick et al 2011;Lavigne et al 2014). Thus, it will be important to determine whether the two-factor structure of oppositional behavior and negative affect are invariant when measures from other sources (e.g.…”