title: Assessment of adult psychopathology: meta-analyses and implications of cross-informant correlations.
abstract: Assessment of adult psychopathology relies heavily on self-reports. To determine how well self-reports agree with reports by "informants" who know the person being assessed, the authors examined 51,000 articles published over 10 years in 52 peer-reviewed journals for correlations between self-reports and "informants" reports. Qualifying correlations were found in 108 (0.2%) of the articles. When self-reports and informant reports were obtained with parallel instruments, mean cross-informant correlations were .681 for substance use, .428 for internalizing, and .438 for externalizing problems. When based on different instruments, the mean cross-informant correlation was .304. The moderate sizes of the correlations argue for systematically obtaining multi-informant data. National survey findings were used to illustrate practical ways to obtain and use such data.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT, USA. thomas.achenbach@uvm.edu
authors.forename: Thomas M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Achenbach
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Krukowski
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Dumenci
authors.forename: Masha Y
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Ivanova
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D003625:Data Collection / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012044:Regression Analysis; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires