Identifying psychological problems in young children: How do mothers compare with child psychiatrists?

Children (N=115) in a randomly selected nonclinic sample were evaluated by their mothers (using the Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist, or CBCL) and a child psychiatrist (who conducted a clinical interview and observation) when they were 2 and 5 years old. Compared to psychiatrists, mothers tended to overreport externalizing problems and underreport internalizing problems (particularly separation anxiety) at age 2. Mothers' reports, however, were predictive of children's social and language abilities and problems assessed at later ages and by fathers. Psychiatrists' reports added to the predictability of child functioning beyond mothers' reports, particularly for problems reported by teachers when the children were 4 and 5 years old. Mothers' and psychiatrists' reports of children's problems at age 5 were more similar than at age 2, and there was no "value added" by psychiatrists' evaluations. Both mothers' and psychiatrists' reports of children's problems were related to risk factors of attachment insecurity and poor parenting, but mothers' reports, relative to psychiatrists', were more closely related to difficult temperament and mothers' own dysphoric functioning, whereas psychiatrists' reports were more closely related to child's gender. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.