Parent-Adolescent Disagreement Regarding Psychopathology in Adolescents From the General Population as a Risk Factor for Adverse Outcome.

Abstract

This study investigated whether parent-adolescent disagreement regarding adolescents' behavioral and emotional problems predicted adverse outcome. A Dutch sample of 15- to 18-year-olds was prospectively followed across a 4-year interval. The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL: T. M. Achenbach, 1997) and Youth Self-Report (YSR; T. M. Achenbach, 1991b) were administered at initial assessment, and the following signs of poor outcome were assessed 4 years later: police/judicial contacts, expulsion from school/job, suicidal ideation, unwanted pregnancy, suicide attempts, deliberate self-harm, referral to mental health services, report of having a behavioral or emotional problem, and feeling the need for professional help without actually receiving help. Twenty CBCL syndrome scores, 23 YSR syndrome scores, and 16 discrepancy scores were significant predictors of poor outcome. It was concluded that to determine the prognosis of psychopathology in adolescents, discrepancies between informants may be important.

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

“…In contrast, parent-youth concordance concerning the externalizing scale of the CBCL and YSR revealed moderate agreement. These findings are consistent with previous studies comparing parent reports and youth self-reports of adolescent emotional and behavioral problems [5,12,23,43]. In line with existing research, the level of parent-adolescent concordance was higher for the externalizing scale than for the internalizing scale [8,34].…”

“…When multiple informants, however, provide information, discrepancies among them are to be expected [20]. Many researchers have reported significant discrepancies between youth-reported and parent-reported psychopathology in children and adolescents [5,12,16,23,24,29,34,35].…”

Informant Discrepancies in Assessing Child Dysfunction Relate to Dysfunction Within Mother-Child Interactions

“…Our findings with regard to the proposed conceptual model (see Figure 1) extend the results of previous research showing the relationship between mother-child discrepant perceptions and the development and course of psychopathology in youth (e.g., Ferdinand et al, 2004;Pelton et al, 2001). The results illustrate how informant discrepancies can be conceptualized as a component of a conceptual model developed and tested to examine the interrelations among critical domains of child, parent, and family functioning.…”

“…The main findings were: (1) mother-child discrepancies in perceived child behavior problems were related to maternal stress and mother-child conflict; (2) maternal stress mediated the relationship between mother-child discrepancies in perceived child behavior problems and mother-child conflict; and (3) the previous relations could not be accounted for or explained by child, mother and family characteristics, which are known to correlate with mother-child discrepancies and maternal stress. Thus, the results suggest that motherchild discrepancies in perceived child behavior problems are related to mother-child conflict and maternal stress mediates this relation.Our findings with regard to the proposed conceptual model (see Figure 1) extend the results of previous research showing the relationship between mother-child discrepant perceptions and the development and course of psychopathology in youth (e.g., Ferdinand et al, 2004;Pelton et al, 2001). The results illustrate how informant discrepancies can be conceptualized as a component of a conceptual model developed and tested to examine the interrelations among critical domains of child, parent, and family functioning.…”

“…Author manuscript; available in PMC 2011 January 13. . Similarly, the extent to which individuals improve with treatment and whether one treatment is more effective than another can vary as a function of parent, child, or teacher evaluations of treatment outcomes (e.g., Kazdin, Siegel, & Bass, 1992;Kendall et al, 1997).Discrepancies may reflect more than clinical assessment and methodological issues (Ferdinand, van der Ende, & Verhulst, 2004;Pelton, Steele, Chance, & Forehand, 2001). The informant discrepancies often revealed in the process of collecting information of childhood dysfunction may be integrally related to dysfunctional interactions between the informants providing the information.…”