Parent-Child Concordance for Reports of Internalizing Symptoms

This study explored the impact of child age, race, and gender on the relationship between parent report of child internalizing symptoms and child self-report of these symptoms. Participants were 573 children (aged 8 - 16 years) and their parents (567 mothers, 347 fathers). Main effects and interactions of these variables on parent-child discrepancy scores were examined using nonparametric regression and two-tailed t-tests. No significant main effects were found for any of the child age variables (i.e., chronological, mental, or social) or for the other child demographic variables examined (i.e., gender, race). In addition, no significant interaction effects were identified between child age, gender, and race. The current study supports and extends previous work by demonstrating that child age, race, and gender do not systematically impact parent-child concordance for child internalizing symptoms either alone or in conjunction with one another.