Teacher, parent, and peer reports of early aggression as screening measures for long-term maladaptive outcomes: Who provides the most useful information?

Abstract

Objective This study compared the ability of teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggressive behavior in early childhood to accurately classify cases of maladaptive outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthood. Method Weighted kappa analyses determined optimal cut points and relative classification accuracy among teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggression assessed for 691 students (54% male; 84% African American, 13% White) in the fall of first grade. Outcomes included antisocial personality, substance use, incarceration history, risky sexual behavior, and failure to graduate from high school on time. Results Peer reports were the most accurate classifier of all outcomes in the full sample. For most outcomes, the addition of teacher or parent reports did not improve overall classification accuracy once peer reports were accounted for. Additional gender-specific and adjusted kappa analyses supported the superior classification utility of the peer report measure. Conclusion The results suggest that peer reports provided the most useful classification information of the three aggression measures. Implications for targeted intervention efforts which use screening measures to identify at-risk children are discussed.

The effects of social anxiety on alcohol and cigarette use across adolescence: Results from a longitudinal twin study in Finland.

“…Research using the same sample and assessment as the present study (Pulkkinen et al, 1999) has found that peer reports are more reliable than either parent or teacher reports of a child’s behavioral and emotional traits, and other studies have found that young children can accurately identify constructs such as SA and other internalizing traits in their same-age peers, even more so than adults (Miers, Blöte, & Westenberg, 2010). Clemans and colleagues (2014) similarly found that peer ratings of behavior were better predictors of associated outcomes than parent or teacher ratings. This suggests that, when possible, peer reports should be collected in research involving younger age groups in order to provide more accurate and useful indicators than might be obtained from other sources.…”

Relations between forms and functions of aggression and moral judgments of aggressive transgressions

“…To address validity concerns, we recruited a subsample of peers to report on target participants' levels of aggression. Previous research has supported the utility of peer nominations and peer ratings of aggression in multiple developmental periods (Clemans, Musci, Leoutsakos, & Ialongo, 2014;Mehari, Waasdorp, & Leff, 2019;Werner & Crick, 1999). In the current study, peer-reports were used to support the interpretation of our findings.…”

Measuring relational and overt aggression by peer report: A comparison of peer nominations and peer ratings

“…Another limitation is that all analyses were cross-sectional. Previous research has found that peer nominations are a strong predictor of future outcomes as much as 20 years later (Clemans et al, 2014). It will be important to determine whether peer ratings are an equally strong predictor prior to encouraging researchers to replace peer nominations with peer ratings in longitudinal studies.…”

“…As discussed previously, peer nominations may be a better overall measure of a child’s image or reputation. Clemans and colleagues (2014) acknowledged that peer nominations may have been so successful in predicting long-term outcomes partially because peer perceptions may play a stronger causal role in children’s outcomes than parent and teacher perceptions. That is, peer perceptions may directly affect how children are treated, which in turn influences their behavior (Clemans et al, 2014).…”

“…Clemans and colleagues (2014) acknowledged that peer nominations may have been so successful in predicting long-term outcomes partially because peer perceptions may play a stronger causal role in children’s outcomes than parent and teacher perceptions. That is, peer perceptions may directly affect how children are treated, which in turn influences their behavior (Clemans et al, 2014). Additionally, the sample in the current study was fairly homogeneous, with all participants living in a large, urban setting, and more than 75% of the sample was African American.…”