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Can Women Provide Reliable Information about Their Children's Fathers? Cross‐informant Agreement about Men's Lifetime Antisocial Behaviour
Author(s) -
Caspi Avshalom,
Taylor Alan,
Smart Matt,
Jackson Jan,
Tagami Steve,
Moffitt Terrie E.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/1469-7610.00787
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , antisocial personality disorder , conduct disorder , clinical psychology , injury prevention , poison control , medicine , environmental health
It is difficult to study the contribution of fathers’ antisocial behaviour to children's development because fathers with behavioural problems are often absent or reluctant to participate in research. This study examines whether mothers’ reports about their children's fathers’ antisocial behaviour can be substituted for interviews with fathers. Both members of 67 couples ( N = 134) were interviewed separately and independently about the men's lifetime antisocial behaviour. There was strong relative agreement: the women's reports about men's antisocial behaviour and the men's self‐reports about the same behaviour were highly correlated. However, there was poor agreement about absolute level: compared to men's self‐reports, women reported fewer of the men's antisocial behaviours. Women's reports provide a reliable index of men's relative standing in a distribution and can be used in research about their children's fathers, but should not be used to make diagnostic decisions about men's antisocial disorders.