TY - JOUR
T1 - All Anxiety is not Created Equal
T2 - Correlates of Parent/Youth Agreement Vary Across Subtypes of Anxiety
AU - Becker, Emily M.
AU - Jensen-Doss, Amanda
AU - Kendall, Philip C.
AU - Birmaher, Boris
AU - Ginsburg, Golda S.
PY - 2016/3/30
Y1 - 2016/3/30
N2 - Research has examined patterns and correlates of parent/youth informant discrepancies in the reporting of youth anxiety. However, little work has examined whether it is better to conceptualize patterns and correlates of informant disagreement across anxiety broadly, or more useful to consider disagreement on specific symptom clusters. Using data from the Child Adolescent/Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS; N = 488; Walkup et al. The New England Journal of Medicine, 359(26), 2753-2766. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0804633, 2008), the current study applied the most recent recommended analytic strategies to study informant discrepancies and examined differences in the magnitude and patterns of disagreement for: (a) broadband anxiety symptoms, versus (b) symptoms of specific anxiety diagnoses (or anxiety subtypes; e.g., separation, social anxiety). Correlates of informant discrepancies were also examined. Results indicated that there was variability in agreement across anxiety subtypes, with parent/youth agreement higher on separation anxiety and school refusal symptoms relative to other domains. Parental psychopathology was associated with disagreement on broadband anxiety symptoms, such that parental psychopathology was highest when parents reported higher symptoms than their children; however, this finding was largely driven by a relationship between parental psychopathology and disagreement on separation anxiety symptoms. Age was associated with disagreement on total and separation anxiety symptoms. Gender was not associated with disagreement. Clinical implications are discussed.
AB - Research has examined patterns and correlates of parent/youth informant discrepancies in the reporting of youth anxiety. However, little work has examined whether it is better to conceptualize patterns and correlates of informant disagreement across anxiety broadly, or more useful to consider disagreement on specific symptom clusters. Using data from the Child Adolescent/Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS; N = 488; Walkup et al. The New England Journal of Medicine, 359(26), 2753-2766. doi:10.1056/NEJMoa0804633, 2008), the current study applied the most recent recommended analytic strategies to study informant discrepancies and examined differences in the magnitude and patterns of disagreement for: (a) broadband anxiety symptoms, versus (b) symptoms of specific anxiety diagnoses (or anxiety subtypes; e.g., separation, social anxiety). Correlates of informant discrepancies were also examined. Results indicated that there was variability in agreement across anxiety subtypes, with parent/youth agreement higher on separation anxiety and school refusal symptoms relative to other domains. Parental psychopathology was associated with disagreement on broadband anxiety symptoms, such that parental psychopathology was highest when parents reported higher symptoms than their children; however, this finding was largely driven by a relationship between parental psychopathology and disagreement on separation anxiety symptoms. Age was associated with disagreement on total and separation anxiety symptoms. Gender was not associated with disagreement. Clinical implications are discussed.
KW - Anxiety disorders
KW - Informant agreement
KW - Youth assessment
KW - Youth psychopathology
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U2 - 10.1007/s10862-016-9544-z
DO - 10.1007/s10862-016-9544-z
M3 - Article
C2 - 28408785
AN - SCOPUS:84962306165
SN - 0882-2689
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment
JF - Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment
ER -