Mother-Child Informant Discrepancy about Child Internalizing Symptoms Predicts Mothers’ Attitudes and Stigmatization Towards Mental Health

• In Event: Poster Session 04
  In Poster Session: PS 04 Topic - Developmental Psychopathology

Abstract

Parents and their children often disagree about children’s behaviors and symptoms. A recent meta-analysis found a correlation of only r = .26 between parents’ and children’s reports of children’s internalizing symptoms (De Los Reyes et al., 2015). These disagreements, known as informant discrepancies, can significantly impact whether parents seek treatment for their child, the nature of the treatment itself, and treatment outcomes (Hawley & Weisz, 2003). The purpose of the present study was to examine the rate of mother-child informant discrepancies about child internalizing symptoms, and the extent to which these informant discrepancies predicted mothers’ attitudes toward child mental health services and stigmatization about mental health.
Participants were 74 children (52.7% female; M= 13.73 years, SD= 2.47; 44.6% White, 29.7% Black, 20.3% Hispanic/Latino, 5.5% other/more than 1 race) and their mothers. Mothers and children completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ; Goodman, 2001), the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Disorders (SCARED; Birmaher et al., 1997), and the Children’s Depression Inventory-2 (CDI; Kovacs, 1985). Mothers also completed the Parental Attitudes Toward Psychological Services Inventory (Turner, 2012).
We conducted descriptive analyses to examine the occurrence of mother-child informant discrepancies, as recommended by Fleenor and colleagues (1996). Scores from mother and child reports of child internalizing symptoms were standardized and compared; scores that differed by 0.5SD or more indicate discrepant scores, whereas scores that are within 0.5SD indicate agreement. The majority of mother-child dyads were discrepant in their reports of the child’s internalizing symptoms: SDQ: 64.3%; SCARED: 62.1%; CDI: 67.6%. Moreover, there was an even split between mothers over-reporting and under-reporting their child’s symptoms compared to the child’s self-report (Table 1).
Polynomial regressions with response surface analysis (e.g., Shanock et al., 2010) were conducted to examine the extent to which mother-child informant discrepancies about child internalizing symptoms were associated with mother’s attitudes towards seeking child mental health help and mental health stigmatization. The results showed that attitudes towards seeking help increased as the degree of discrepancy between mother-reported and child-reported emotional problems (SDQ) increased, B= 0.68, SE= 0.31, p= .03 (Figure 1a), regardless of the direction of the discrepancy (i.e., which person was reporting more).
There was a nonlinear association between stigmatization towards mental illness and mother-child agreement on the SDQ, B= -0.33, SE= 0.15, p= .03, and the SCARED, B= 0.02, SE= 0.01, p= .02. Specifically, stigmatization was highest when mothers and children agreed that the child’s emotional symptoms were either lower or higher, but stigmatization was lowest when mothers and children agreed that the child’s symptoms were moderate in severity (Figure 1b). On the other hand, stigmatization was lowest when mothers and children agreed that the child had lower or higher levels of anxiety symptoms, but stigmatization was highest when mothers and children agreed that the child’s anxiety symptoms were moderately severe (Figure 1c).
The findings underscore the importance of obtaining multi-reporter accounts of children’s internalizing symptoms and differentiating between various forms of internalizing symptoms. They also highlight the importance of public education campaigns to decrease stigmatization of child mental health.

Authors

• Sharyl E Wee, Southern Methodist University
  Presenting Author

• Erin M Kerwin, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Naomi Ekas, Texas Christian University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Chrystyna D Kouros, Southern Methodist University
  Non-Presenting Author