The availability, use, and participation of multiple informants in the assessment of child and adolescent psychopathology in research and practice

Date

1999-08

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Publisher

Texas Tech University

Abstract

Using multiple informants (parents, teacher, peers, child) in the assessment of children's behavioral and emotional problems is supported in the research literature, yet information about how often clinicians and researchers seek out multiple informants and how often these informants participate when they are sought out is unknown. Published empirical studies over a six-year period in six journals were reviewed (n = 673) and questionnaire information regarding applied child/adolescent assessments (n = 933) was obtained from 251 clinicians to determine the use and participation of multiple informants in the assessment of children's behavioral and emotional problems.

Results indicated that the majority of assessments in both research and practice involved seeking out more than one informant, although 40.3% of the reviewed articles only used one informant. Also, in both research and practice, children and their parents were the most frequent informant types sought and other non-adult informants were rarely sought out to provide information. A substantial amount of applied clinical assessments included use of informants not popularly thought of as usually providing assessment information. In research articles, fathers were found to participate less than any other informant. In applied clinical assessments, children and their mothers participated the most and peers and siblings participated the least when they were sought out. The findings indicated that researchers and clinicians as a whole are following research recommendations regarding the use of multiple informants, and the use of certain types of informants for assessments of specific behavior types (internalizing vs. externalizing) and age groups (child vs. adolescents). Implications for future research on diverse informants and the integration of assessment methods in research and practice are discussed. Fathers and siblings were two types of informants that are used more in applied clinical assessments than in research, and more information about their efficacy is needed. Also, researchers are encouraged to report more, and more specific, information regarding missing data in their studies.

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