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Interrater agreement and discrepancy when assessing problem behaviors, social‐emotional skills, and developmental status of kindergarten children
Author(s) -
Bergold Sebastian,
Christiansen Hanna,
Steinmayr Ricarda
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.22840
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , inter rater reliability , situational ethics , social skills , social emotional learning , clinical psychology , rating scale , social psychology
Abstract Objective The present study examined parent‐teacher agreement and discrepancy when assessing kindergarten children's behavioral and emotional problems, social‐emotional skills, and developmental status. Method Parents and teachers of overall n = 922 kindergarten children ( M age = 3.99; 449 girls) rated the children using the Conners Early Childhood, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Questionnaire for Assessing Preschool Children's Behavior. Results Agreement was moderate for problem behaviors and social‐emotional skills and substantial for developmental status. Agreement was stronger for externalizing than for internalizing problems. Agreement on the clinical relevance of problem behaviors and of social‐emotional skills was stronger for children with a clinical diagnosis than for those without. Parents tended to report more problems, but also greater social‐emotional skills and developmental status, than teachers. Conclusions The findings corroborate the importance of situational specificity for understanding interrater agreement and discrepancy. Future teacher questionnaires should more specifically assess children's functioning in kindergarten.