Understanding Parent and Child Report in a Sample of Pre-Pubertal Children with Mood Disorders

The following study has a number of important goals. First, it examines the relationship between parent and child report of the child’s psychiatric disorders and mood disorder symptoms. Informant data were collected using a structured interview, clinician rating scales, and self-report instruments. Agreement was assessed using correlational analyses and discrepancy scores. Consistent with past research, the present study found low overall parent-child agreement regarding the child’s psychiatric symptoms and diagnoses. In general, agreement was higher for externalizing disorders and observable behaviors than for internalizing disorders. Also, informant agreement was higher for the past two weeks compared to a more longitudinal assessment (i.e., the “worst” lifetime period as identified by parents and children). Secondly, this study examines factors thought to be related to parent-child disagreement (e.g., child age, severity of child’s illness, child sex, parental depression). Results did not support the influence of child age on parent-child disagreement. A significant difference was found between current parental depression and informant agreement regarding the “worst” period. This suggests parental psychopathology may influence parent report of their child’s symptoms. Further, child age was found to moderate the relationship between parental depression and informant agreement. Results also demonstrated that parent-child agreement was worse for children with greater illness severity. Finally, the present study addressed whether participation in family psychoeducational treatment groups increased parent-child agreement. While mean parent-child discrepancy scores decreased for members in the immediate treatment group compared to the control group, this difference was not statistically significant. The clinical implications of parent-child agreement, limitations of the present study, and directions for future research are discussed.