Metro North Mental Health, Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
School of Medicine, Griffith University, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia.
Aust N Z J Psychiatry. 2021 Nov;55(11):1058-1070. doi: 10.1177/00048674211009610. Epub 2021 Apr 30.
Differences between adolescent self-reported and parent-reported emotional and behavioural difficulties may influence psychiatric epidemiological research. This study examined concordance between adolescents and their parents about mental health symptoms using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire.
The study comprised a randomly selected, nationally representative sample of adolescents aged 11-17 years who participated in the Second Australian Child and Adolescent Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing ( = 2967). Matched adolescent and parent responses across the five Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire subscales (emotional problems, hyperactivity, peer problems, conduct problems and prosocial behaviour), as well as total difficulties and total impact scores were examined to estimate concordance. Concordance patterns were analysed by sex, after stratifying the sample by age group (younger adolescents: 11-14 years; older adolescents: 15-17 years).
Concordance was 86.7% for total difficulties, 77.5% for total impact and ranged from 82.4% to 94.3% across the five Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire subscales. There were no differences in concordance between sexes on the total difficulties score. Older females were more likely to disagree with their parents about emotional problems compared to males of the same age. Younger males were more likely to disagree with their parents compared to same-aged females about peer problems, hyperactivity, conduct problems and prosocial skills, as well as the impact of their problems. Older males were more likely to disagree with their parents about their prosocial skills compared to older females.
Overall, concordance between adolescents and parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire was largely driven by the high proportion of respondents who reported having no problems. Discordance on a subscale increased as the prevalence of problems in a sex and age demographic subgroup increased. These findings highlight the need for a multi-informant approach to detect emotional and behavioural difficulties in adolescents, particularly when assessing the impact of symptoms, as this subscale had the lowest concordance.
青少年自我报告和父母报告的情绪和行为困难之间的差异可能会影响精神病学的流行病学研究。本研究使用长处和困难问卷（SDQ）检查了青少年及其父母在心理健康症状方面的一致性。
该研究包括了随机选择的、具有全国代表性的 11-17 岁青少年样本，他们参加了第二次澳大利亚儿童和青少年心理健康和幸福感调查（n=2967）。检查了五个 SDQ 分量表（情绪问题、多动、同伴问题、品行问题和亲社会行为）以及总困难和总影响评分中青少年和父母的匹配反应，以估计一致性。按性别分析了一致性模式，并按年龄组（年龄较小的青少年：11-14 岁；年龄较大的青少年：15-17 岁）对样本进行分层。
总困难的一致性为 86.7%，总影响的一致性为 77.5%，五个 SDQ 分量表的范围从 82.4%到 94.3%。在总困难评分上，性别之间没有一致性差异。与同年龄的男性相比，年龄较大的女性更有可能不同意其父母对情绪问题的看法。与同年龄的女性相比，年龄较小的男性更有可能不同意其父母对同伴问题、多动、品行问题和亲社会技能以及问题的影响的看法。与年龄较大的女性相比，年龄较大的男性更有可能不同意其父母对其亲社会技能的看法。
总体而言，青少年和父母在 SDQ 上的一致性在很大程度上取决于报告没有问题的受访者比例很高。在性别和年龄亚组中，问题的患病率增加，子量表上的不一致性增加。这些发现强调了需要采用多信息源的方法来检测青少年的情绪和行为困难，特别是在评估症状的影响时，因为该子量表的一致性最低。
