Agreement Among Parents,Teachers, and Children on Internalizing and Externalizing Behavior Problems

Investigated agreement between mothers, fathers, teachers, and children on equivalent forms of a standardized measure of behavioral and emotional problems. Ninety-eight children, age 13 years, completed the Youth Self-Report (Achenbach, 1991d). Their mothers and fathers completed the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach, 1991b), and their teachers completed the Teacher Report Form (Achenbach, 1991c). Children generally reported the most problems and teachers the least. Agreement was highest between mothers and fathers on internalizing and externalizing problems, and lowest for rater pairs involving teachers on internalizing problems. Analyses of a multitrait-multimethod matrix for ratings of internalizing and externalizing problems indicated good convergent validity, large rater effects, and weaker discriminant validity. Conditional probabilities for agreement on deviant and nondeviant scores indicated that ratings by no informant could substitute for those of any other rater. Teacher ratings of externalizing problems were the best predictor of referral for mental health services.