Concordance of mothers' and fathers' ratings of children's behavior

Abstract

Texas A&M UniversityBehavior rating scales and checklists are frequently used in the assessment of children and adolescents. These instruments are often completed by parents. There is little in the literature comparing mothers' and fathers' responses to such scales. Results of the present study indicate that mothers and fathers often differ in their perceptions of the behavior of their children. The need for separate norrning by parent seems to be indicated.Indirect methods of behavioral assessment have become increasingly important in the diagnosis of emotional and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents. These indirect methods include behavioral rating scales and checklists most often completed by parents or teachers of the child being assessed. Practitioners in the schools are aware that one must evaluate children in their ecological system, and there is a great need to know how the child is perceived by important players within the system; ratings of behavior by a variety of individuals are often sought in additon to assessment data obtained directly from the child.A parent's rating of behavior is important because he/she has the primary role in caretaking, spends more time with the child than anyone else, and thus becomes the primary data source in many referrals to mental health clinics and to special education. Most behavior scales collapse mothers' and fathers' responses in the norming process, either assuming similarity or gathering data regarding similarity after the fact, or norming scales on the basis of the mothers' responses and allowing administration to either parent.In a review of studies on the Personality Inventory for Children (Wirt, Lachar, Klinedinst, & Seat, 1984), which consists of a series of questions about the child answered true or false by the parent, reliability between mothers' and fathers' responses was reported. General agreement between parents was moderate, and there was a tendency for fathers to underreport problems. Agreement did not appear to be sufficient to support the use of common norms independent of the rater's status as a mother or a father (Reynolds, 1986). Jacob, Grounds, and Haley (1982) studied parents' agreement on the Behavior Problem Checklist and found that parents of nonreferred children were in more agreement than parents of clinic-referred children. Achenbach and Edelbrock (1 983) compared mothers' and fathers' ratings of clinically referred children on the Child Behavior Checklist. The median r across the various subscales was .66, indicating moderate agreement.Disagreement between parents may, of course, be clinically significant and is often a good discussion point in developing consistent management strategies. McMahon (1984) suggests that when parents rate children differently on more than one dimension, these differences may be attributed to such things as the child behaving differently with each Send reprint requests to Cecil R. Reynolds,

Disagreement between parents on assessment of child temperament traits

“…In contrast, we should be cautious about possible biases of personal attributes, particularly depression, personality, and trait anger in the parental assessment of Emotionality and Impulsivity. Father–mother disagreement regarding assessment of child temperament reported in previous studies may be explained by these biases.…”

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Emotionality Activity Sociability and Impulsivity (EASI) Survey: Psychometric Properties and Assessment Biases of the Japanese Version

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