Poster #77 - Discrepancies in Child and Parent Report of Child Trauma Symptoms in a School Setting: Implications for Trauma Informed Schools

• In Event: 2-002 - Special Poster Session 05 with Continental Breakfast Reception
  In Poster Session: PS 05 - Interdisciplinary Section

Integrative Statement

Reliable symptom measures are imperative when diagnosing any form of psychopathology, especially in evaluation of child symptoms that can be assessed with self- and/or parent-report. A discrepancy in symptom reporting is common among multiple reporters, especially when one or more reporter is a child (Taber, 2010). Large reporting discrepancies between parents and their children have been associated with poor outcomes in clinical outpatient settings (Goodman, De Los Reyes & Bradshaw, 2010). Less is known, however, about parent-child reporting discrepancies in nonclinical samples. The present study adds to this literature by assessing reporting discrepancies between parents and children on child trauma symptoms in an at-risk sample of children participating in a trauma-informed afterschool program.
Participants included 113 parent-child dyads involved in a larger community-based study conducted in three elementary schools. Children ranged in age from 6 to 11 years old and lived in high rates of poverty and community violence. 96.4 percent of the children received free/reduced lunch at school. Each member of the dyad separately completed the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index with a trained clinician, and reported on the child’s trauma symptoms across the five symptom clusters indicated in the DSM-5: intrusions, avoidance, negative alterations in cognitions and mood, alterations in arousal and reactivity, and dissociation.
Parent and child responses were summed items to create total PTSD symptom scores. Parents’ and children’s report of total symptoms were not significantly correlated (r=.11, n.s.), indicating that there was weak agreement in general between parent and child report on the UCLA PTSD Reaction Index. A paired samples t-test was run with the parent-report of child total symptoms and the child self-report of total symptoms to further assess for differences in reporting of child symptoms. There was a significant difference between parent-report (M=16.035, SD=18.324) and child self-report (M=28.443, SD=22.758) of total sum of symptoms: t(112)=4.777, p<0.001, showing that children reported significantly more symptoms than parents. Parent and child scores on the measure were then summed for each of the symptom clusters. Reporting agreement was calculated for each dyad using an interclass correlation coefficient based on parent and child report of each cluster. A multiple linear regression model was run predicting parent-child agreement from parent and child report of total child symptoms. The results of the regression indicated that, controlling for child report of total symptoms, as parent report of child total symptoms increased, parent-child agreement in report of child symptoms also increased (b=1.957, SE=.176, p<.01). This indicates that, regardless of children’s report, parents who report their child experiencing more trauma symptoms tend to have higher agreement with their child. Additional analyses plan to examine how parent- and child-reported trauma symptoms relate to children’s educational data including grades, absences, and suspensions.
Our data reveal that parent- and child-reports of child trauma symptoms are greatly different. These results have implications for how schools may best adopt trauma-informed approaches, particularly in informing decisions regarding how to best assess child trauma symptoms as they relate to educational outcomes. Further implications and future directions will be discussed.

Authors

• Evelyn McManus, University of Notre Dame
  Presenting Author

• Kaitlin Fondren, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Ruth Speidel, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stephanie Steward-Bridges, Beacon Health
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kristin Valentino, University of Notre Dame
  Non-Presenting Author