Date of Completion

2017

Thesis Type

College of Arts and Science Honors

Department

Neuroscience

First Advisor

Sayamwong Hammack

Second Advisor

Robert Althoff

Keywords

child, psychiatry, emotion regulation, UVM, CERL, multi-informant agreement

Abstract

At least 20% of children and adolescents living in the United States struggle with emotional-behavioral problems. For clinicians to accurately diagnose and treat these problems, it is important to collect information from multiple informants to obtain the most complete understanding of a child’s symptoms, life circumstances, and relationships. The present study examined the extent to which parents and children agreed in their ratings on six questionnaires measuring different types of child emotional-behavioral problems, including emotion dysregulation, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, executive functioning, and callous and unemotional traits. Participants included 87 dyads (78% mothers and their children, 57% boys). Based on a latent class analysis of child behavioral symptoms on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), parent-child dyads were classified as: non-clinical controls, psychiatric controls, or dysregulated. Pearson’s correlations of parent and child ratings were computed and differences in the strength of the correlations across the three groups were tested. Analyses revealed significant differences between control and psychiatric control groups on the Impulsivity and Narcissism subscales of the Antisocial Process Screening Device (APSD), between the psychiatric control and dysregulation profile groups on the Shift and Monitor subscales of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF), and between control and dysregulation profile groups on the Monitor scale of the BRIEF, as well as the Aggression and Frustration subscales of the Early Adolescent Temperament Questionnaire (APSD). Discrepancies for child psychopathology, including emotion dysregulation, give insight into individual differences in the informants’ perception, understanding, and report of emotional-behavioral symptoms.

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