Discrepancies between parent and self-reports of adolescent psychosocial symptoms: Associations with family conflict and asthma outcomes.

Discrepancies often exist between self-reported and parent-reported symptoms when assessing youth psychosocial functioning. Parent-child discrepancies in ratings may be important for understanding psychopathology and patterns of family functioning, particularly during adolescence and for youth with chronic illness. This study examined patterns of multirater reporting discrepancies in a pediatric asthma population. Adolescents (n = 707; 11-17 years old) and their primary caregivers completed ratings of adolescents' psychological symptoms. Latent profile analysis identified five profiles of parent-adolescent discrepancies, including one group with highly discordant ratings, two groups in agreement, and two groups with slightly discordant ratings. Adolescents who agreed with their parents on the presence of elevated symptoms and those who had significant discrepancies in ratings, such that parents reported elevated symptoms compared to youth self-report, had poor pulmonary functioning and elevated reports of parent-rated family conflict. Results suggest the need to assess internalizing and externalizing symptoms in adolescents with asthma using a multirater approach while also highlighting the complexity in interpreting patterns of discrepancies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).