Parent Informants for Child Personality: Agreement, Discrepancies, and Clinical Utility

Abstract

A long-standing issue in child clinical research is the integration of various informants, but this topic has not been comprehensively applied to the domain of child personality. Mothers and fathers rated their children (N = 346) on personality traits and behavioral problems. Mother–father agreement was highest for Conscientiousness and lowest for Neuroticism and Agreeableness. Each parent's ratings added incremental variance in predicting behavioral problems, and mother–father discrepancy predicted internalizing problems. These results suggest that both parents should be used as informants in child personality assessment and discrepancies might reflect meaningful variance with clinical utility.

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. I would like to thank the parents and children who participated in this research and the many students in the Personality Across Development Lab who helped to carry it out.