Journal of Pediatric Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 8, 2003, pp. 579-588
© 2003 Society of Pediatric Psychology
Parent and Child Reporting of Negative Life Events: Discrepancy and Agreement across Pediatric Samples
1 University of Kansas, Memphis, Tennessee, 2 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee
All correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ric Steele, PhD, Clinical Child Psychology Program, 2006 Dole Center for Human Development, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas 66045–7555. E-mail: rsteele{at}ku.edu
Objective To examine the consistency in child and parent reporting of child's negative life events across child/pediatric samples. Methods A total of 613 child-parent dyads provided independent reports of negative life events. The pairs included three groups consisting of children who were healthy (n = 362), diagnosed with cancer (n = 130), and diagnosed with a chronic illness (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, or cystic fibrosis; n = 121). Results Children reported significantly more negative life events than their parents reported for them. Additionally, children in the chronically ill group self-reported significantly fewer negative life events than the other groups. However, parents of children with cancer reported significantly more negative life events than the other groups. Although discrepancies exist in all three samples, parents and children in the healthy group were significantly more discrepant than the other groups. Conclusions These results suggest that communication of children's life events between parent and child may increase during children's experience of cancer or a chronic illness. However, significant discrepancies remain in child and parent report of negative life events. Because of this, clinicians are encouraged to recognize the strengths and limitations of using multiple reporters in assessing negative life events in children.
Key words: negative life events; parent-child agreement; child self-report; chronic illness.
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