Parent-Child Agreement on Depressive Symptoms in Depressed and Suicidal Youth

Clinicians often utilize a multi-informant approach when assessing depression symptoms in youth; however, reporting discrepancies can arise among informants. Previous work has explored reporting discrepancies of depression symptoms between children and their parents, specifically, and identified several demographic factors that potentially affect parent-child agreement. Findings remained mixed, however, on the extent to which these variables influence parent-child agreement. The present study examined parent-child agreement on a self-report assessment of depression symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 modified for adolescents; PHQ-A) in 698 parent-child dyads. Additionally, we aimed to characterize the relationship between parent-child agreement and treatment utilization. We found a low level of parent-child agreement overall and no significant differences in agreement when examined as a function of, child’s sex assigned at birth, ethnicity, or parental history of depression. Additionally, children currently receiving psychotherapy had greater agreement with their parents regarding their depression symptoms than children receiving any other types of services (i.e., medication treatment or a combination treatment). These results suggest that clinicians should expect a low level of agreement between parent and child when assessing youth with depression and should consider gathering contextual information from additional sources to generate a comprehensive assessment.