Parent-youth agreement on self-reported competencies of youth with depressive and suicidal symptoms

• Published in: Canadian journal of psychiatry Vol. 60; no. 2 Suppl 1; pp. S55 - S60
• Main Authors: Mbekou, Valentin, Macneil, Sasha, Gignac, Martin, Renaud, Johanne
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States The Canadian Psychiatric Association 01-02-2015
• Subjects: Adolescent; Age Factors; Chapter 6; Depression - diagnosis; Female; Humans; Male; Parents; Self Report - standards; Sex Factors; Suicidal Ideation
• ISSN: 0706-7437; 1497-0015

A multi-informant approach is often used in child psychiatry. The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment uses this approach, gathering parent reports on the Child Behaviour Checklist (CBCL) and youth reports on the Youth Self-Report (YSR), which contain scales assessing both the child's problems and competencies. Agreement between parent and youth perceptions of their competencies on these forms has not been studied to date.
Our study examined the parent-youth agreement of competencies on the CBCL and YSR from a sample of 258 parent-youth dyads referred to a specialized outpatient clinic for depressive and suicidal disorders. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated for all competency scales (activity, social, and academic), with further examinations based on youth's sex, age, and type of problem.
Weak-to-moderate parent-youth agreements were reported on the activities and social subscales. For the activities subscale, boys' ratings had a strong correlation with parents' ratings, while it was weak for girls. Also, agreement on activities and social subscales was stronger for dyads with the youth presenting externalizing instead of internalizing problems.
Agreement on competencies between parents and adolescents varied based on competency and adolescent sex, age, and type of problem.