Multiple Informant Agreement and the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Parents and Children

Agreement between youth-reported and parent-reported psychopathology in a referred sample

“…The authors interpreted the results in the way that adolescents' behavior may be less observable by informants compared to childrens' behavior. Interestingly, some studies have not detected age differ-ences [14,29,39] or figured out that disagreement was higher for younger than for older children [25]. A lot of discrepancies may be attributable to sample characteristics.…”

“…Research has also investigated informant disagreement with regard to specific childhood externalizing problems (aggression, hyperactivity/inattention and oppositional behavior) and revealed low to moderate levels of informant agreement as well [20,25,26,30].…”

Informant Discrepancies in the Assessment of Childhood Psychopathology: A Critical Review, Theoretical Framework, and Recommendations for Further Study.

“…Perhaps the reason why younger children's behavior may be more observable by informants is because younger children are more constrained in the situations for which they exhibit behavior. For instance, young children, when compared with adolescents, may spend significantly more time with informants who are commonly asked to provide information of the child's behavior, such as parents and teachers, and less time engaging in activities that are less observable to these informants, such as spending time with peers outside of home or school.Interestingly, several studies have not found age differences (Choudhury et al, 2003;Engel, Rodrigue, & Geffken, 1994;Jensen, Xenakis, Davis, & Degroot, 1988;Kolko & Kazdin, 1993;Verhulst et al, 1987) or found that agreement between informants is greater for older than younger children (e.g., Grills & Ollendick, 2003). Many of the discrepancies among the findings may be attributable to sample characteristics and how the research question was examined.…”

“…For instance, low-to-moderate levels of informant agreement have generally been found on informants' ratings of child anxiety (Choudhury et al, 2003;Comer & Kendall, 2004;Edelbrock et al, 1986;Engel et al, 1994;Foley et al, 2004;Frick et al, 1994;Grills & Ollendick, 2003;Krain & Kendall, 2000;Rapee et al, 1994;Verhulst et al, 1987;Wachtel et al, 1994;Weissman et al, 1987). In addition, although the findings of some of these studies have been moderated by child and family characteristics (e.g., child age, child ethnicity, child gender, children's social desirability, family conflict, maternal anxiety; Edelbrock et al, 1986;Grills & Ollendick, 2003;Rapee et al, 1994;Wachtel et al, 1994), nevertheless, levels of informant agreement generally remain in the low-to-moderate range.With regard to informants' ratings of child depression, prior work has generally revealed low-to-moderate levels of informant agreement (Angold et al, 1987;Braaten et al, 2001;Edelbrock et al, 1986;Garber, Van Slyke, & Walker, 1998;Ines & Sacco, 1992;Ivens & Rehm, 1988;Kashani, Orvaschel, Burk, & Reid, 1985;Reich, Herjanic, Welner, & Gandhy, 1982;Verhulst et al, 1987;Weissman et al, 1987;Williams, McGee, Anderson, & Silva, 1989). However, some of these studies examined informant agreement on individual symptoms and found moderate-to-high levels of agreement on individual symptoms regarding suicidal ideation (e.g., Angold et al, 1987;Ivens & Rehm, 1988).…”

“…One of these studies examined informant agreement with regard to individual symptoms and found moderate-to-high levels of parent-teacher agreement on individual symptoms regarding schoolwork (Loeber et al, 1989). Occasionally, the findings have been moderated by child and family characteristics (e.g., child age, child gender, children's social desirability, family conflict; Edelbrock et al, 1986;Grills & Ollendick, 2003), although informant agreement generally remains in the low-to-moderate range despite the influence of these informant characteristics on levels of agreement.With regard to informants' ratings of childhood oppositional behavior, prior work has generally revealed low-to-moderate levels of informant agreement (Edelbrock et al, 1986;Jensen et al, 1999;Kashani et al, 1985;Loeber et al, 1989;Offord et al, 1996;Williams et al, 1989). One of these studies examined informant agreement with regard to individual symptoms and found moderate-to-high levels of parent-teacher agreement on individual symptoms regarding school problems and arguments with teachers (Loeber et al, 1989).…”