Parent, Teacher and Observational Reports of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Young Autistic Children

Emotional and behavioral problems (EBPs) frequently occur in young autistic children. Discrepancies between parents and other informants are common but can lead to uncertainty in formulation, diagnosis and care planning. This study aimed to explore child and informant characteristics are associated with reported child EBPs across settings. Participants were 83 4–8-year-old autistic children and their parents and teachers in the Autism Spectrum Treatment and Resilience (ASTAR) study. Questionnaires of child EBPs were completed by parents and teachers, and self-reported parenting stress and wellbeing measures were obtained. An observation of parent–child/researcher-child interaction was also completed. Parents reported more EBPs than teachers and parent-teacher agreement was low, particularly for emotional problems. Greater parenting stress and being verbal was associated with more parent- but not teacher-reported EBPs. More observed behaviors that challenge were displayed by minimally verbal children. More parenting stress could be associated with the presence of more EBPs in the home; alternatively, parenting stress may confound reports. It is essential for assessments of EBPs in autistic children to take a multi-informant approach. Better understanding of the associations between informant characteristics and informant discrepancies of EBPs is needed.

Using informant discrepancies in report of parent–adolescent conflict to predict hopelessness in adolescent depression

Hopelessness is an important symptom of adolescent depression, being associated with both risk of suicide and poor treatment response, but predictors of hopelessness are understudied. Conflict with parents is common in adolescent depression, but parents and adolescents often disagree when reporting conflict severity. Discrepancy in reporting may be an indicator of the parent–adolescent dyad lacking a shared representation of the state of their relationship. This could make conflicts seem unresolvable to the adolescent, leading to expectations of persistent stress and lack of support, increasing hopelessness. This study employed latent difference scores, ordinal regression and cross-validation to evaluate the hypothesis that discrepancy in report of parent–adolescent conflict would predict hopelessness among depressed adolescents. Parents reporting less conflict than the adolescent was associated with increased adolescent hopelessness, giving preliminary support to the hypothesis.

Informant Discrepancies in Child Maltreatment Reporting: A Systematic Review

Potential informants on child maltreatment include the youth who has experienced the alleged maltreatment, and the youth’s caregivers, social workers and case files. When multiple informants are compared, they often disagree about whether or not a youth has experienced maltreatment. Such determinations are critical as endorsement—or lack of endorsement—of maltreatment can have significant consequences on the child’s safety, future living arrangements and referral for treatment and services. The current study provides a systematic review of the literature on informant discrepancies in child maltreatment. Three databases—PsychINFO, Web of Science, and PubMed—were used to identify studies for the review and 13 articles met inclusion criteria. Results showed that more youth tend to report physical, sexual and emotional abuse than seen in case files. By contrast, more case files include neglect than reported by youth. Implications and future directions are discussed.