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Parental and children's report of emotional problems: agreement, explanatory factors and event‐emotion correlation
Author(s) -
Michels Nathalie,
Vanaelst Barbara,
Stoppie Elke,
Huybrechts Inge,
Bammann Karin,
Henauw Stefaan,
Sioen Isabelle
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
child and adolescent mental health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.912
H-Index - 46
eISSN - 1475-3588
pISSN - 1475-357X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-3588.2012.00672.x
Subject(s) - sadness , anger , psychology , anxiety , developmental psychology , interview , clinical psychology , psychiatry , political science , law
Background As often only parents are addressed, studying parent‐child agreement and its explanatory factors is crucial in gaining accurate information on young children's emotional problems. Method Parental and children's reports of children's emotional problems (anger, anxiety, sadness) and children's reports of life events were gathered between February and June, 2010 from 464 Belgian nonclinical children 5–10 years old. Results Children reported more emotional problems than their parents. Parental underestimation was higher in the case of girls, older children, nontraditional family structures and authoritative parenting style. Furthermore, life events and emotional problems were significantly correlated only when using children's reported emotions. Conclusions In our nonclinical children, interviewing both parents and children on children's emotional problems is necessary and parent‐child disagreement can partially be explained by child or family characteristics.