Incremental Validity and Informant Effect from a Multi-Method Perspective: Assessing Relations between Parental Acceptance and Children’s Behavioral Problems

Abstract

This study examines the relationships between perceived parental acceptance and children’s behavioral problems (externalizing and internalizing) from a multi-informant perspective. Using mothers, fathers, and children as sources of information, we explore the informant effect and incremental validity. The sample was composed of 681 participants (227 children, 227 fathers, and 227 mothers). Children’s (40% boys) ages ranged from 9 to 17 years (M = 12.52, SD = 1.81). Parents and children completed both the Parental Acceptance Rejection/Control Questionnaire (PARQ/Control) and the check list of the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA). Statistical analyses were based on the correlated uniqueness multitrait-multimethod matrix (model MTMM) by structural equations and different hierarchical regression analyses. Results showed a significant informant effect and a different incremental validity related to which combination of sources was considered. A multi-informant perspective rather than a single one increased the predictive value. Our results suggest that mother–father or child–father combinations seem to be the best way to optimize the multi-informant method in order to predict children’s behavioral problems based on perceived parental acceptance.

Behavioral Inhibition in Childhood: European Portuguese Adaptation of an Observational Measure (Lab-TAB)

“…The incremental validity [ 82 ] of Lab-TAB measures, when compared to parental or educators reports about BI, also needs additional empirical support. Inferences about the incremental validity of a new measure are conditional and depend on the criterion measures that are being explained (for instance, anxiety or externalized symptoms) or on the contexts and populations that are being assessed [ 83 ]. Incremental validity is particularly relevant for observational measures, considering their cost-effectiveness in relation to more readily obtainable measures [ 84 ].…”

A Mixed Methods Research Study of Parental Perception of Physical Activity and Quality of Life of Children Under Home Lock Down in the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…On the other hand, there is little research aimed at exploring parents’ knowledge and perceptions of their children’s physical activity, their ideas about its importance and impact on the way they experience diverse dimensions of a stressful life ( Gallego-Méndez et al, 2020 ; Spinelli et al, 2020 ; Yarımkaya and Esentürk, 2020 ) particularly during the Coronavirus outbreak. Exploring these issues, including the different perspectives of persons involved in families’ life ( Izquierdo-Sotorrío et al, 2016 ), could help provide recommendations and support programs for parents to guide their children’s physical activity.…”

The etiology of social aggression: a nuclear twin family study

“…Both mothers and teachers rated monozygotic twins as more similar than dizygotic twins, while fathers rated both types of twins as equally similar, leading to higher estimates of shared environmental factors and lower estimates of genetic and unique environmental influences relative to other informants. Such findings could reflect bias on the part of fathers, or limited information/exposure to their twin's socially aggressive behavior (and thus an inability to distinguish between them; Izquierdo-Sotorrío et al, 2016). Alternately, they could reflect bias on the part of mothers and teachers.…”