title: A longitudinal look at parent-child diagnostic agreement in youth treated for anxiety disorders.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Oregon State University, Corvallis 97331, USA. scott.safford@oregonstate.edu
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Safford
authors.forename: Philip C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Kendall
authors.forename: Ellen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Flannery-Schroeder
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Webb
authors.forename: Heath
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Sommer
mesh_terms: 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