A longitudinal look at parent-child diagnostic agreement in youth treated for anxiety disorders.
This study examined diagnostic agreement between children and their parents for seventy 9- to 13-year-olds (45 boys and 25 girls) who had received cognitive-behavioral treatment for anxiety disorders. Parent-child diagnostic rates and agreements for generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, and social phobia were evaluated at 3 time points: pretreatment, posttreatment, and 7.4-year follow-up. Results indicate that parent-child diagnostic agreement was typically poor to moderate (kappa = -.03 to .64) and that estimates of agreement remained relatively unchanged (a) following treatment and (b) as the children enter adolescence and young adulthood. Parent-daughter agreement was better than parent-son agreement in some cases. Although it remains unclear whether parent or child diagnostic information is most accurate, positive treatment outcome appears to be possible despite poor parent-child diagnostic agreement.
Safford
Scott M
SM
Department of Psychology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331, USA. scott.safford@oregonstate.edu
Kendall
Philip C
PC
Flannery-Schroeder
Ellen
E
Webb
Alicia
A
Sommer
Heath
H
D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015588:Observer Variation; D010287:Parent-Child Relations; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D016896:Treatment Outcome