Chap 5: Different Informants when Collecting Data on Child Psychopathology Flashcards
Often, informants don’t agree. What’s the correlation between them in general?
Correlations from .20 to .40
Why are the correlations between informants quite low? (2) - not detailed
(1) People see these kids in diff contexts: Behavior might not be equally present in those places
(2) Parents: what is normal vs abnormal? Might not be able to distinguish what’s typical or not at this age (vs teacher can)
Parents’ problems might impact …
reporting
E.g. 1 maternal depression = over-reporting kid’s behavior — more of a reflection of how it affects parents’ mental health
What might explain disagreements between informants? (2)
(1) Different perspectives
(2) Situation Specificity of Children’s behavior
Having (1) Different perspectives explain disagreements between informants. How so?
(1) Rater-specific factors that lead to systematic differences in reporting (Evidence for bias in reports of some informants)
(2) Legitimate differences in the MEANING of behaviors across settings: Contexts may change the interpretation of behavior (e.g. at home they have huge discipline so they can let it go vs school big discipline all day)
Informant discrepancies may tell us something real about …
children’s adaption in various settings
Because of the (2) Situation Specificity of Children’s Behavior, there’s disagreement among informants, how so?
- Can reflect different demands
-> Inter-rater differences may be capturing legitimate differences in children’s behavior across settings
How are data from multiple informants used to make a diagnosis?
Combine ratings with either
- ‘OR’ rule
- ‘AND’ rule
-> Can result in diff diagnostic decisions
Explain ‘OR’ rule
Symptom is present if ANY informant says it is
Explain ‘AND’ rule
Symptom is present only if ALL informants agree
How do you choose if you’re taking the ‘AND’ or the ‘OR’ rule? Main take-away about specificity
Clinicians must use their judgement to determine whether to apply ‘and’ vs ‘or’ rule thinking to the child/adolescent walking in the door.
-> Tailor it to the child!
-> No hard and fast rules – judgement needed
Things to think about when choosing ‘OR’ vs ‘AND’ rule (5)
(1) THE DISORDER BEING SCREENED – for some disorders, teachers and parents may be better or worse reporters
(2) How reliable is each reporter? Do they have ample opportunity to observe target behaviour(s)?
(3) How much insight does the child have into their own experience?
(4) Certain behavior might be easier to identify in diff contexts
(5) Other behavior might be hard to pin down (e.g. negative thoughts about self) - self report nice
‘Disadvantages’ of combining ratings (3)
(1) Both the ‘and’ the ‘or’ rules do NOT capture the fact that differences between informants are VALUABLE
(2) Diagnosis identified by teacher may be DIFFERENT than one identified by a parent
(3) Think about maintaining ratings separately (Parent-reported, teacher-reported, combined…)
