Daughter and mother report of individual symptoms on the children's depression inventory

doi:10.1016/S1054-139X(96)00090-0

Journal of Adolescent Health

Volume 20, Issue 1, January 1997, Pages 51-57

https://doi.org/10.1016/S1054-139X(96)00090-0 Get rights and content

Purpose:

To examine differences between early adolescent girls' and their mothers' perceptions of girls' depressive symptoms.

Methods:

313 daughter-mother dyads completed the Children's Depression Inventory.

Results:

Low to modest agreement was found for most symptoms, although higher agreement was found for symptoms relating to school performance. The hypothesis that girls would report more ideational symptoms and mothers more behavioral symptoms of depression was tested; girls generally reported more ideational and behavioral symptoms when differences occurred. However, several specific ideational symptoms (feeling like crying; feeling sad; guilt; worrying) tended to be more frequently endorsed by girls and had particularly poor daughter-mother agreement. Examining third variables associated with daughter-mother agreement, girls scoring high on social desirability tended to have smaller daughter-minus-mother difference scores for ideational, but not for behavioral items; therefore, social desirability may be associated with girls underreporting ideational symptoms.

Conclusion:

Mothers appear to be reliable raters of symptoms related to school functioning, but may be less aware of certain covert depressive symptoms in their early adolescent daughters.

References (29)

FlemingJE et al.
Epidemiology of childhood depressive disorders: A critical review
J Amer Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat
(1990)
KleinRG
Parent-child agreement in clinical assessment of anxiety and other psychopathology: a review
J Anxiety Dis
(1991)
IvensC et al.
Assessment of childhood depression: correspondence between reports by child, mother, and father
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat
(1988)
NguyenN et al.
Parent-child agreement in prepubertal depression: findings with a modified assessment method
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat
(1994)
RadloffLS
The use of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in adolescents and young adults
J Youth Adolesc
(1991)
PetersenAC et al.
Depression in adolescence
Amer Psychol
(1993)
EdelbrockC et al.
Age differences in the reliability of the psychiatric interview of the child
Child Develop
(1985)
EdelbrockC et al.
Parent-child agreement on child psychiatric symptoms assessed via structured interview
J Child Psychol Psychiat
(1986)
AngoldA et al.
Parent and child reports of depressive symptoms in children at low and high risk of depression
J Child Psychol Psychiat
(1987)
MokrosHB et al.
A Comparison of child and parent ratings of depression for normal and clinically referred children
J Child Psychol Psychiat
(1987)

KazdinAE et al.

Assessment of overt behavior and childhood depression among psychiatrically disturbed children

J Clin Consult Psychol

(1985)

PoznanskiEO et al.

Children's Depression Rating Scale—revised

Psychopharm Bull

(1985)

KazdinAE et al.

Child and parent evaluations of depression and aggression in psychiatric inpatient children

J Abnor Child Psychol

(1983)

ThurberS et al.

Assessment of adolescent psychopathology: comparison of mother and daughter perspectives

J Clin Child Psychol

(1990)

Cited by (8)

Prevalence and correlates of maladaptive guilt in middle childhood
2020, Journal of Affective Disorders
Citation Excerpt :
For example, these children may disproportionately miss opportunities to learn to differentiate situations in which guilt is appropriate versus misplaced, and acquire reparative prosocial skills that help regulate guilt affect (Donohue and Tully, 2019; Zahn-Waxler and Kochanska, 1990). Our finding of poor parent-child agreement on maladaptive guilt is consistent with previous literature documenting that parent and child report begin to diverge in early adolescence (Grills and Ollendick, 2002; Rothen et al., 2009), as well as studies finding particularly poor mother-daughter agreement on covert compared to overt depressive symptoms, including maladaptive guilt (Bennett et al., 1997). The lifetime prevalence rate reported by parents and children was nearly identical, yet children reported more current maladaptive guilt than did their parents.
Maladaptive guilt can develop by age three and is associated with severe affective psychopathology in adolescents and adults. Yet, little is known about its prevalence prior to adolescence, or which children are at greatest risk of developing this symptom. This study examined the prevalence and correlates of maladaptive guilt in middle childhood.
This study examined a large community sample of 9-to 10-year-old children (N = 4485) from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Maladaptive guilt was assessed through the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for DSM-5. Parental rejection, family conflict, and parental depression were assessed via questionnaires.
In depressed children, a 1-month prevalence of maladaptive guilt of 18.4% and a lifetime prevalence of 30.8% was found. Lifetime rates ranged from 1.8 to 4.1% in children with other psychiatric disorders. Cross-sectionally, maladaptive guilt was associated with lower family income-to-needs, greater family conflict, a history of maternal depression, and greater parental rejection. These findings held when controlling for children's depressive severity, indicating that these associations are specific to maladaptive guilt.
Maladaptive guilt was assessed through one item, though many studies of maladaptive guilt measure the symptom in this manner.
Findings suggest that it may be beneficial for clinicians to assess for maladaptive guilt beyond the context of assessment for depression, particularly with children of low socioeconomic status and children of depressed mothers, whom this study suggests are at higher risk. Negative family climates and parenting might also be important targets of preventative interventions.
Factors influencing mother-child reports of depressive symptoms and agreement among clinically referred depressedyoungsters in Hungary
2007, Journal of Affective Disorders
Psychiatric assessments of children typically involve two informants, the child and the parent. Understanding discordance in their reports has been of interest to clinicians and researchers. We examine differences between mothers' and children's report of children's depressive symptom severity, and factors that may influence their reports and level of agreement. We hypothesized that agreement between mother and child would improve if (1) the mother is depressed, due to improved recall of mood congruent symptoms, (2) the child is older, due to better social-cognitive and communication skills, and (3) the child is a female.
Subjects were 354 children (158 girls; mean age 11.69 years, SD: 2.05 years) with Major Depressive Disorder. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by a semi-structured interview separately with the mother and the child. Agreement on symptom severity was based on concordance of the presence and extent of symptoms.
Maternal reports were significantly higher than their son's but not daughters'. Girls, particularly with increasing age, reported higher levels of symptoms; however mothers' reports were not affected by child sex or age. Maternal depression predicted more severe symptom reports for both children and mothers. Agreement between the mother and the child increased as children got older.
The same clinician interviewed the mother and the child, which might inflate rates of agreement. However, this method mirrors clinical evaluation.
During a clinical interview one must consider the age and sex of the child and the depressive state of the mother in assimilating information about the child.
Measuring health status using the Health Utilities Index: Agreement between raters and between modalities of administration
2001, Journal of Clinical Epidemiology
The aim of this study was to evaluate interrater and intermodality agreement in assessing health status using the Health Utilities Index. A random sample from a Dutch cohort of 14-year-old Very Low Birth Weight children and their parents were invited to participate in a face-to-face (n = 150) or telephone (n = 150) interview. All 300 participants were also sent a questionnaire by mail. Response rate was 68%. Interrater and intermodality agreement were high for the physical HUI3 attributes and poor for the psychological attributes. Children and parents reported more dysfunction in the psychological attributes when interviewed than when completing the mailed questionnaire. High agreement on the physical attributes may have resulted from the fact that hardly any dysfunction was reported in these attributes, and poor agreement in the psychological attributes may have been a result of the fact that in these attributes much more dysfunction was reported. In measuring children's health status using the HUI3, the results and their interpretation vary with the source of information and the modality of administration. For maximum comparability between studies, written self-report questionnaires seem the preferred option.
Prenatal Exposure and Child brain and mental Health (PEACH) study: Protocol for a cohort study of children and youth with prenatal alcohol exposure
2021, BMJ Open
Fatigue and depression in children with demyelinating disorders
2013, Journal of Child Neurology
Examining African American Adolescent Depression in a Community Sample: The Impact of Parent/Child Agreement
2012, Journal of Child and Family Studies

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Original articleDaughter and mother report of individual symptoms on the children's depression inventory

Purpose:

Methods:

Results:

Conclusion:

J Amer Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat

J Anxiety Dis

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiat

The use of the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale in adolescents and young adults

J Youth Adolesc

Depression in adolescence

Amer Psychol

Age differences in the reliability of the psychiatric interview of the child

Child Develop

Parent-child agreement on child psychiatric symptoms assessed via structured interview

J Child Psychol Psychiat

Parent and child reports of depressive symptoms in children at low and high risk of depression

J Child Psychol Psychiat

A Comparison of child and parent ratings of depression for normal and clinically referred children

J Child Psychol Psychiat

Assessment of overt behavior and childhood depression among psychiatrically disturbed children

J Clin Consult Psychol

Children's Depression Rating Scale—revised

Psychopharm Bull

Child and parent evaluations of depression and aggression in psychiatric inpatient children

J Abnor Child Psychol

Assessment of adolescent psychopathology: comparison of mother and daughter perspectives

J Clin Child Psychol

Original article
Daughter and mother report of individual symptoms on the children's depression inventory