Parent-adolescent agreement on emotional and behavioral problems.
BACKGROUND
The aim of the study is to report parent/youth self-report agreement on emotional and behavioral symptoms among 15- to 16-year-old adolescents.


METHODS
A completed Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self-Report were obtained from 580 subjects.


RESULTS
Adolescents reported significantly more problem behaviors than their parents. Adolescent girls reported a significantly higher level of distress than boys in most symptom domains. The discrepancies between parent reports and youth self-reports were greater, especially for internalizing symptoms, for girls than for boys.


CONCLUSIONS
Many adolescents in need of psychiatric assessment do not receive appropriate help because their problems remain unnoticed by adults. Internalizing problems among girls seem especially likely to remain unrecognized by adults.
Sourander
A
A
Department of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, Finland. andre.sourander@utu.fi
Helstelä
L
L
Helenius
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015995:Prevalence; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires