Mother-father Agreement Research Articles

Do mothers and fathers agree? Examining interparental ratings of youth externalizing behaviors among ethnically diverse families

This study examined the association between youth, parent, and family characteristics in mother-father agreement of youth externalizing behaviors among ethnically diverse families. Eighty-eight mother-father dyads of youth (44% Latino, 38% European-American, 17% African American) 6-16 years participated. Overall associations between parent's reports of youth behavior problems were positively correlated. Significant predictors of parent difference scores in regression analyses included mother's depression scores (negatively), mother and father parenting stress scores (positively and negatively, respectively), and child's symptom severity (positively in the Inattention and Learning Problems models; negatively in the Defiance/Aggression model). Results highlight the need for psychosocial screening of youth's parents during child psychological assessment to identify situations in which both parent reports are needed for youth assessment. Further, it contributes to the small literature base of discrepancies in parent reports in minority youth and expands upon the minimal research involving paternal caregivers.

0990 MOTHER-FATHER AGREEMENT AND ONE-YEAR STABILITY OF CHILDREN’S SLEEP FUNCTIONING

Mothers and fathers have only moderate agreement in their ratings of children’s emotional and behavioral functioning, which in turn has implications for clinical assessment. However, we are unaware of any study that has examined mother-father agreement of children’s sleep functioning. The present study evaluated the concurrent and prospective agreement of mother and father ratings of sleep in a large, community-based sample of Spanish children. Mothers and fathers separately rated sleep functioning in 536 Spanish children (48% girls) in third grade and again one year later. A Total Sleep Disturbance scale was used, in addition to Sleep Habits, Nighttime Waking, Parasomnia, Sleep Onset Delay, Daytime Sleepiness, and Sleep Duration Variability subscales. Mean sleep functioning scores did not differ between mothers’ and fathers’ ratings, with the sole exception of higher Daytime Sleepiness scores on mothers’ ratings compared to fathers’ ratings in Grade 3 (but not at Grade 4). Similar strong correlations were found between mothers’ and fathers’ ratings of child sleep, both concurrently and over time. Specifically, for Total Sleep Disturbance scale, mothers’ and fathers’ ratings were correlated at .79 in Grade 3 (concurrent), .80 in Grade 4 (concurrent), and .64 from Grade 3 to 4 (longitudinal). Similar correlations were found for the Sleep Habits, Nighttime Waking, and Parasomnia subscales. Weaker mother-father correlations were found for the Daytime Sleepiness, Sleep Onset Delay, and Sleep Duration Variability subscales. Within-rater associations over the one-year period were also lower for these three subscales. Mother and father ratings of their child’s sleep functioning generally showed strong agreement and 1-year stability. Agreement and discrepancies in parent ratings can provide information regarding the nature and course of socio-emotional and behavioral functioning. Further study is needed to understand how agreement of sleep ratings specifically can inform clinical practice. Secretariat of State for Research, Development and Innovation, Ministry of Economic and Competitiveness, Spanish Government, PSI2014-52605-R.

Mothers’ and Fathers’ Prenatal Agreement and Differences Regarding Postnatal Parenting

SYNOPSISObjective. Parental expectations before birth may predict children’s development and family environment. Researchers investigated the similarity and differences between expecting mothers and fathers regarding their future parental behavior. Design. Pregnant women (N = 820) and their partners (N = 512) completed questionnaires concerning their future parenting. Results. Mothers’ and fathers’ prenatal parental expectations correlated positively; mothers expected to show more warm, positive parenting and less negative, rejecting parenting compared to fathers; and for most parenting variables, mother–father agreement remained significant only for couples not knowing the fetus’s sex. Conclusions. Patterns of agreement and differences between mothers and fathers regarding future parenting resemble postnatal findings in the literature. Future studies should examine how prenatal expectations relate to postnatal parenting to better understand their significance in child development.

Parent discrepancies in ratings of young children's co-occurring internalizing symptoms.

We examined the agreement between mothers and fathers with regard to their children's internalizing symptoms and tested predictors of rating discrepancies. The clinic sample included 181 children (ages 3 to 8) and their mothers and fathers who were participating in a parenting treatment study for children with behavioral problems. Mother-father agreement for ratings of internalizing problems was found to be moderate and consistent with previous research. Regression analyses revealed that parental stress, but not depression, predicted some of the variance associated with mother-father rating discrepancies. A gender effect was also found such that parent discrepancies were larger for girls than for boys. Much of the variance associated with rating discrepancies was left unexplained. Implications for both research and practice are discussed.

Diagnostic Efficiency of the Child and Parent Versions of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children

The objective of this study is to evaluate the psychometrics and clinical efficiency of the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), which measures physical symptoms, harm avoidance, social anxiety, and separation/panic. Using a sample of 190 treatment-seeking Norwegian youth (aged 7–13 years, M age = 10.3 years, 62.1% male), the internal stability and ability to predict to disorder were examined for child, mother, and father reports on the MASC. Moderate to strong internal reliability was exhibited across all MASC subscales. Parent–child agreement was low, but mother–father agreement was high. MASC scores successfully distinguished between children with and without anxiety disorders and identified youth with separation anxiety disorder and social phobia, but less accurately generalized anxiety disorders. The MASC has favorable psychometric properties and is a useful screening instrument for identifying youth with anxiety disorders.

Parent Informants for Child Personality: Agreement, Discrepancies, and Clinical Utility

A long-standing issue in child clinical research is the integration of various informants, but this topic has not been comprehensively applied to the domain of child personality. Mothers and fathers rated their children (N = 346) on personality traits and behavioral problems. Mother–father agreement was highest for Conscientiousness and lowest for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Each parent's ratings added incremental variance in predicting behavioral problems, and mother–father discrepancy predicted internalizing problems. These results suggest that both parents should be used as informants in child personality assessment and discrepancies might reflect meaningful variance with clinical utility.

Conduct problems, IQ, and household chaos: a longitudinal multi‐informant study

We tested the hypothesis that household chaos would be associated with lower child IQ and more child conduct problems concurrently and longitudinally over two years while controlling for housing conditions, parent education/IQ, literacy environment, parental warmth/negativity, and stressful events. The sample included 302 families with same-sex twins (58% female) in Kindergarten/1st grade at the first assessment. Parents' and observers' ratings were gathered, with some collected over a two-year period. Chaos varied widely. There was substantial mother-father agreement and longitudinal stability. Chaos covaried with poorer housing conditions, lower parental education/IQ, poorer home literacy environment, higher stress, higher negativity and lower warmth. Chaos statistically predicted lower IQ and more conduct problems, beyond the effects of other home environment factors. Even with other home environment factors controlled, higher levels of chaos were linked concurrently with lower child IQ, and concurrently and longitudinally with more child conduct problems. Parent self-reported chaos represents an important aspect of housing and family functioning, with respect to children's cognitive and behavioral functioning.

Parental Agreement on ADHD Symptom-Specific and Broadband Externalizing Ratings of Child Behavior.

Mothers and fathers often disagree in their ratings of child behavior as evidenced clinically and supported by a substantial literature examining parental agreement on broadband rating scales. The present study examined mother-father agreement on DSM-based, ADHD symptom-specific ratings, as compared to agreement on broadband ratings of externalizing behavior. Using mother and father ratings from 324 children who participated in the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD, parental agreement was computed and patterns of disagreement were examined. Mother-father ratings were significantly correlated. However, a clear pattern of higher ratings by mothers compared to fathers was present across ratings. Agreement on ADHD symptom-specific ratings was significantly lower than agreement for broadband externalizing behaviors or ODD symptoms. Of several moderator variables tested, parental stress was the only variable that predicted the discrepancy in ratings. Disagreement between parents is clinically significant and may pose complications to the diagnostic process.

Longitudinal analyses of risk‐disorder pathways: the key to early identification and targeted intervention

Longitudinal analyses of risk‐disorder pathways: the key to early identification and targeted intervention

Terrible ones? Assessment of externalizing behaviors in infancy with the Child Behavior Checklist

This study investigated the occurrence, cross-informant agreement, 1-year stability, and context characteristics of externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children, as compared to 24- and 36-month-olds. In a general population sample of 786 12-month-olds, 720 24-month-olds, and 744 36-month-olds, the CBCL/ 1(1/2)-5 was obtained from mothers and fathers and again one year later for a subsample of 307 children. Mothers of 1,831 children also provided complete data on child, mother, and family characteristics. Over three-fourths of the externalizing behaviors occurred in more than 10% of 12-month-olds, over one-third of the items in more than 25%. For almost all externalizing behaviors, the occurrence was significantly lower in 12-month-olds compared to 24- and 36-month-old children. Mother-father agreement and 1-year stability of externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children were significant, but generally somewhat lower than in 24- and 36-month-olds. Context characteristics were related to externalizing behaviors in 12-month-olds as well as in older children. Some associations were less pronounced in 12-month-old children, but the overall pattern of correlates was similar across age groups. The results of this study show that externalizing behaviors in 12-month-old children merit further research and can be assessed with the CBCL in a valid way.

Level of agreement between children, parents, and physicians in rating pain intensity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis

To investigate the level of agreement between patients, mothers, fathers, and physicians in rating pain intensity in juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and to identify factors explaining discrepancies between raters. Ninety-four children with JIA and their mothers and fathers were asked to rate independently the intensity of present pain and pain in the previous week on a visual analog scale. The physicians rated pain intensity after physical examination. Agreement between raters was determined using intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland and Altman method. Correlations of explanatory variables with discordance in rating pain intensity were determined by univariate and multivariate analyses. Explanatory variables included sex, age, JIA category, disease duration, results of study ratings, joint inflammation measures, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate. Agreement in rating present pain was moderate between children and mothers, but was poor between children and fathers and children and physicians. The agreement in rating pain in the previous week was moderate between children and mothers and children and fathers. Mother-father agreement was good. Parents and physicians agreed at a moderate level. In multiple regression analyses, only intensity of present pain was significantly associated with discordance within child-mother, child-father, and child-physician dyads. Children's ratings of pain were only in moderate agreement with those of their parents and were in poor agreement with those of the physicians, whereas the father and mothers agreed at a good level. The intensity of pain was the strongest determinant of discordance between children and other raters.

Transmission of Religious Values: Relations Between Parents' and Daughters' Beliefs

Sixty-two White, middle-class, undergraduate women (mean age = 21.1 years) and their parents participated in a study on the transmission of religious beliefs. Accuracy of daughters' perceptions of their parents' beliefs was found to be related to how frequently parents talked about their beliefs and to mother-father agreement on beliefs. Daughters' perceptions of the warmth of the parent-child relationship were related to the agreement between daughters' beliefs and their perceptions of parents' beliefs. The relation between parents' beliefs and daughters' beliefs was mediated by daughters' perceptions of their parents' beliefs.

Family perceptions of adolescent self-image

This study examined relationships between adolescents' self-image and perceptions of these adolescents held by their parents. It was hypothesized that parents would generally agree with their children's self-perceptions and that greater congruence between parents and their children would be associated with greater positive adolescent self-image. One hundred and six normal families participated in this study in the spring of 1981. Results showed that parents accurately perceive their adolescent children's selfimage. Specific areas of disagreement between parents and adolescents are discussed. Other results showed that mother-father agreement is associated with positive descriptions by the adolescents of their family and a positive attitude toward vocational and educational goals. Mother-child congruence scores were more highly correlated with adolescents' self-image than fatherchild congruence scores. Daughters' self-image was more highly associated with parent-child agreement than was sons' self-image.