Bias influencing maternal reports of child behaviour and emotional state

Najman, Jake M.; Williams, Gail M.; Nikles, Jane; Spence, Susan H.; Bor, William; O’Callaghan, Michael; Brocque, Robyne Le; Andersen, M. J.; Shuttlewood, G. J.

doi:10.1007/s001270170062

Cited by 269 publications

(239 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Furthermore, respondents in our study rated items as occurring 'often', 'sometimes' or 'never' rather than on a three-point scale ranging from 0 -'not true' to 2 -'very true' or 'often true', as described in the original scale. Factor analyses and reliability estimates of sub-scales produced results consistent with Achenbach's data ( [Achenbach, 1991a] and [Najman et al, 2001]). In addition, a sample of 76 parents whose 6-year-old children were at school also completed the long form of the CBCL.…”

Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 81%

Screening in early childhood for risk of later mental health problems: A longitudinal study

Najman

Heron

Hayatbakhsh

et al. 2008

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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Depression in childhood or adolescence is associated with increased rates of depression in adulthood. Does this justify efforts to detect (and treat) those with symptoms of depression in early childhood or adolescence? The aim of this study was to determine how well symptoms of anxiety/depression (A-D) in early childhood and adolescence predict adult mental health. The study sample is taken from a population-based prospective birth cohort study. Of the 8556 mothers initially approached to participate 8458 agreed, of whom 7223 mothers gave birth to a live singleton baby. Children were screened using modified Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) scales for internalizing and total problems (T-P) at age 5 and the CBCL and Youth Self Report (YSR) A-D subscale and T-P scale at age 14. At age 21, a sub-sample of 2563 young adults in this cohort were administered the CIDI-Auto. Results indicated that screening at age 5 would detect few later cases of significant mental ill-health. Using a cut-point of 20% for internalizing at child age 5 years the CBCL had sensitivities of only 25% and 18% for major depression and anxiety disorders at 21 years, respectively. At age 14, the YSR generally performed a little better than the CBCL as a screening instrument, but neither performed at a satisfactory level. Of the children who were categorised as having YSR A-D at 14 years 30% and 37% met DSM-IV criteria for major depression and anxiety disorders, respectively, at age 21. Our findings challenge an existing movement encouraging the detection and treatment of those with symptoms of mental illness in early childhood.

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Section: Methodssupporting

confidence: 81%

Screening in early childhood for risk of later mental health problems: A longitudinal study

Najman

Heron

Hayatbakhsh

et al. 2008

Journal of Psychiatric Research

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show abstract

“…Possibly because of the skewed distributions, all the models fit significantly worse than the saturated model, which is another limitation of the data. Parent report contains some bias (34) and shows only modest correlation with other raters when studying autistic symptoms (29). Parental assessment of problem behavior is a practical option for large studies, and parents are familiar with behavior across time and a range of situations.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A twin study of autism symptoms in Sweden

et al. 2010

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“…The results of Najman et al (2001) show that the more emotionally disturbed the mother, the greater the degree to which she imputes the child to have behavioral problems (measured by the CBCL/YSR); the data suggest-according to the authors-that maternal health impairment is associated with biased observations.…”

Section: Cbcl T/c and Ysr T/c Values Compared To The Norm Valuesmentioning

confidence: 96%