A Multi-informant Multi-Measure Approach to the Two Factor Model of Emotion with Youth

The two-factor model of emotion clarifies the complexities of the relationship between anxiety and depression through their varying associations with positive and negative affect. Although this model’s structure has been studied in children, the lack of parent report measures on model-specific constructs has thus far prevented a multi-informant perspective on the model. Capitalizing on recent advancements in parent report assessment instruments, the present investigation aimed to confirm the two-factor model of emotion per child self-report; expand the model’s applicability to include parent report; and create a combined-informant model with a large number of parent-child dyad pairs (N = 610). Structural equation modeling demonstrated good fit within parent and child informant models, but diminished fit for the multi-informant model. These results suggest a high degree of robustness with respect to informant type. Implications for the integration of multi-informant assessment information are discussed.