Parent-youth agreement on diagnoses and symptoms of anxiety

Abstract

Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent psychiatric condition in childhood, with nearly one in three adolescents meeting diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder before 18 years. When assessing childhood anxiety disorders, it is recommended to gather data from multiple informants to minimize false positives and negatives. However, research suggests that parents and children often disagree when assessing the child's psychiatric symptoms. This study examined parent-youth agreement for symptoms and diagnosis of childhood anxiety disorders as well as the impact of age and gender on agreement. The sample consisted of 104 youths between 12 - 18 years of age seeking treatment from two outpatient treatment facilities. K-SADS-PL, a semi-structured diagnostic interview based on DSM-5 criteria, was administered to children and their parents separately. Children and parents also rated symptoms of anxiety on parallel scales (Revised Children's Anxiety and Depression Scale (RCADS) and a parent version (RCADS-P)) prior to the interview. Parent-youth agreement ranged from poor to moderate at both diagnostic and symptom level, which is in line with previous studies. Youths reported more symptoms of anxiety than their parents did. Furthermore, the results indicate that factors such as age and gender may affect agreement. The results of this study affirm the importance of collecting information from both children and parents when assessing child anxiety disorders. Clinicians should consider potentially moderating factors while incorporating information from multiple sources.