Preschoolers’ social skills and behaviour problems at home: mothers and fathers’ (dis)agreement

*The present paper is based on data of the first author’s PhD dissertation, presented to the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra (Portugal).

ABSTRACT

Parents offer unique information and are recognized as the main informants about children’s social emotional functioning across time and situations. Inter-parental agreement was analysed with 100 preschoolers (M_age = 54.94 months) being rated independently by their mothers and fathers, using the Portuguese version of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behaviour Scales – Second Edition (PKBS-2). Data were analysed according to four levels: index of agreement, index of disagreement, risk level and item analyses. The results indicated a low to moderate inter-parental agreement, with Pearson correlations ranging from .35 to .59. Fathers rated their children as having more social withdrawal problems (unique score that reached statistical significance) than mothers. No differences between mothers and fathers were found in the number of children included in risk level categories. Item analyses showed high similarities between informants concerning social skills and behaviour problems. Relevance of collecting mothers and/or fathers’ reports for research and practice purposes are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool
• mother
• father
• agreement
• social skills
• behaviour problems

Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank all the parents who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

*The present paper is based on data of the first author’s PhD dissertation, presented to the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra (Portugal).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT, Portugal) under the first author’s PhD Grant (Reference SFRH/BD/29141/2006).

Notes on contributors

Sofia de Oliveira Major

Sofia de Oliveira Major is Ph.D. in Psychology (Psychological Assessment) by the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Coimbra (Portugal), where she previously worked as an Invited Assistant Professor. Actually, she is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychology at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, University of the Azores. Author of the Portuguese version of the Preschool and Kindergarten Behavior Scales – Second Edition (PKBS-2). Participated in several funded projects on early intervention (with the Incredible Years programs). Author of several articles in the field of psychological assessment published in national and international journals.

Maria João Seabra-Santos

Maria João Seabra-Santos is Ph.D. in Psychology (Psychological Assessment) by the University of Coimbra. Certified mentor of the Incredible Years Basic Parents program. Has adapted and validated several psychological assessment instruments for preschoolers (e.g. WPPSI-R; TABC-R; PKBS-2). Member of the research team of three projects funded by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), including ‘Early prevention /intervention in disruptive behaviour disorders: Efficacy of parents and teachers programmes’ (PTDC/PSI-PED/102556/2008). Coordinated the project ‘Incredible Years for the promotion of mental health’ (EEA Grants PT06, 51SM4). Author of book chapters and articles on psychological assessment and empirically validated interventions, published in national and international journals.

Roy P. Martin

Roy P. Martin Ph.D., is an emeritus professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia (Athens, Georgia, USA). Prior to his service for the University of Georgia, he worked at Temple University (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) in a program whose primary function was the training of school psychologists. His primary research activities have been devoted to studying temperamental individual differences in children as well as other social–emotional behaviours. The interface between normal individual differences in the behaviour of children and diagnosable behaviour problems is a reoccurring theme in his research. He has developed several measurement instruments used for the assessment of temperament in children and has published more than 50 book chapters and articles, as well as two books related to behaviour in children.