Blair D Batky, Hanna M Smith, Stephanie N Rohrig, Angela W Chiu, Shannon M Bennett
{"title":"Informant discrepancies in adolescent anxiety assessment: The roles of adolescent depression and school avoidance.","authors":"Blair D Batky, Hanna M Smith, Stephanie N Rohrig, Angela W Chiu, Shannon M Bennett","doi":"10.1037/pas0001503","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When assessing adolescent psychopathology, discrepancies in adolescent self-report versus caregiver informant-report scores on symptom measures are typical. As anxiety is the most common mental health concern among adolescents, understanding variables associated with adolescent-caregiver informant discrepancies on anxiety measures is valuable for assessment and treatment planning. However, although anxiety often co-occurs with other problems, no existing work has examined how other common emotional/behavioral problems (i.e., depression, school avoidance) among adolescents moderate the magnitude of adolescent-caregiver score discrepancies on anxiety measures. The present study used latent difference score modeling within a sample of adolescent-caregiver dyads recruited from an adolescent partial hospitalization program (<i>N</i> = 328, 47.81% female, 46.06% White; <i>N</i> = 145-204 for primary analyses) to examine whether adolescent depression, school avoidance, and adolescent-caregiver (dis)agreement on top problems for treatment moderate adolescent-caregiver score discrepancies on anxiety scales. Results suggest adolescents and caregivers provide similar scores for adolescents' anxiety symptoms. However, adolescents who self-report higher levels of depression and school avoidance behavior may self-report higher panic/somatic symptom levels and generalized anxiety levels than their caregivers attribute to them. Adolescent-caregiver agreement on top problems for treatment was not associated with adolescent-caregiver agreement on anxiety scale scores. Carefully assessing experiences of somatic and worry-related symptoms may be beneficial for adolescents presenting with depression and/or school avoidance. Moreover, identifying reasons why adolescents and caregivers provide similar anxiety scale scores but vary in endorsing anxiety as a top problem for treatment or vice versa would aid in further understanding adolescent-caregiver informant discrepancies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).</p>","PeriodicalId":20770,"journal":{"name":"Psychological Assessment","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.1000,"publicationDate":"2026-09-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Psychological Assessment","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0001503","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
When assessing adolescent psychopathology, discrepancies in adolescent self-report versus caregiver informant-report scores on symptom measures are typical. As anxiety is the most common mental health concern among adolescents, understanding variables associated with adolescent-caregiver informant discrepancies on anxiety measures is valuable for assessment and treatment planning. However, although anxiety often co-occurs with other problems, no existing work has examined how other common emotional/behavioral problems (i.e., depression, school avoidance) among adolescents moderate the magnitude of adolescent-caregiver score discrepancies on anxiety measures. The present study used latent difference score modeling within a sample of adolescent-caregiver dyads recruited from an adolescent partial hospitalization program (N = 328, 47.81% female, 46.06% White; N = 145-204 for primary analyses) to examine whether adolescent depression, school avoidance, and adolescent-caregiver (dis)agreement on top problems for treatment moderate adolescent-caregiver score discrepancies on anxiety scales. Results suggest adolescents and caregivers provide similar scores for adolescents' anxiety symptoms. However, adolescents who self-report higher levels of depression and school avoidance behavior may self-report higher panic/somatic symptom levels and generalized anxiety levels than their caregivers attribute to them. Adolescent-caregiver agreement on top problems for treatment was not associated with adolescent-caregiver agreement on anxiety scale scores. Carefully assessing experiences of somatic and worry-related symptoms may be beneficial for adolescents presenting with depression and/or school avoidance. Moreover, identifying reasons why adolescents and caregivers provide similar anxiety scale scores but vary in endorsing anxiety as a top problem for treatment or vice versa would aid in further understanding adolescent-caregiver informant discrepancies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
期刊介绍:
Psychological Assessment is concerned mainly with empirical research on measurement and evaluation relevant to the broad field of clinical psychology. Submissions are welcome in the areas of assessment processes and methods. Included are - clinical judgment and the application of decision-making models - paradigms derived from basic psychological research in cognition, personality–social psychology, and biological psychology - development, validation, and application of assessment instruments, observational methods, and interviews