To test the reliability of children's reporting as compared with that of their mothers, a highly structured psychiatric diagnostic interview was used with 307 subjects, ages 6 through 16. Another interviewer gave each mother a similar interview about the child. Responses of each mother-child pair to 168 questions were compared using the kappa statistic. Highest agreement was found on questions concerning symptoms that are concrete, observable, severe, and unambiguous. Mothers tended to report significantly more behavioral symptoms, and children more subjective symptoms. Reasons for low kappas and asymmetrical reporting of symptoms are discussed.

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Similar structured diagnostic interviews about the child were given by different interviewers to a cohort of 307 mother-child pairs. A diagnosis was made by computer on each interview, using specified criteria. Diagnoses on mother-child interviews were compared using the kappa statistic. Kappas of .30 or higher were found for the diagnosis of antisocial personality, conduct disorder, enuresis, mixed behavior-neurotic disorder, and possible depression. Comparisons were made for sex and age. Possible depression and enuresis were diagnosed reliably at all age levels and for both sexes. The limitations of the interview and diagnostic system used are discussed. The findings support the need for further efforts to develop diagnostic research interviews for use with children and adolescents.

Fifty children, ranging in age from 6 to 16 years, and their mothers were interviewed using the same structured interview, which in its content follows the usual psychiatric examination of a child. Their answers were compared and it was found that there was an 80% average agreement on all questions. The agreement (between child and parent) was highest on questions relating to factual information (84%) and the agreement (between child's interviewer and parent) was lowest in the section dealing with mental status (69%). Girls were more reliable informants than boys.