Latent profile analysis: another approach to look at parent–teacher agreement on preschoolers’ behavior problems

ABSTRACT

Informant agreement is a common research issue in the context of children social emotional assessment. The present study analyzed parent–teacher agreement in ratings of behavior problems (BPs) using latent profile analysis (LPA). Analyses were performed for 1000 preschoolers rated, for the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – Second Edition (PKBS-2), independently by parents and teachers. Eight clusters were obtained based on the five supplemental subscales of the Problem Behavior scale of the PKBS-2. These clusters isolated groups of children across the entire range of BPs that varied in level of rater agreement. Results highlighted that parents tend to rate their children with more BPs than teachers do. Agreement is better for children with extreme levels of BPs (low or high). Findings reinforce the usefulness of the PKBS-2 and support the use of LPA as an alternative to traditional approaches.

KEYWORDS:

• Parent–teacher agreement
• preschool children
• latent profile analysis
• behavior problems
• Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – Second Edition

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Ph.D. Grant attributed to the first author (Grant: SFRH/BD/29141/2006) from the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal).