Parenting stress and the reliability of parental information in the diagnostics of children and adolescents with symptoms of psychiatric and behavioral disorders

Irlbauer-Müller V, Eichler A, Stemmler M, Moll G, Kratz O (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie Hogrefe

Book Volume: 45

Pages Range: 303-309

Journal Issue: 4

DOI: 10.1024/1422-4917/a000467

Abstract

Information from parents is regularly used in the diagnostic process of children and adolescents with psychiatric symptoms. But the reliability of this information is debatable, because the parents' own stress can distort their perceptions of the child's symptoms.For each of N = 68 children and adolescents (11-18 years) who were using mental health services for the first time, we evaluated the ratings of a parent and a professional clinician (internalizing, externalizing symptoms, total-problem score). In addition, parenting stress was scored on the Eltern-Belastungs-Inventars (EBI, Tröster, 2011), which measures both child-related stress and parent-related stress as well as total stress.Highly stressed parent ratings differed more from the clinicians' ratings than the ratings of less stressed parents. Additionally, correlations showed that higher parenting stress resulted in larger differences between the parent's and the clinician's assessments. Multiple regressions proved the predictive value of child-caused parenting stress for these differences. These results apply for internalizing symptoms, externalizing symptoms, and total-problem score.Parenting stress should be evaluated systematically in order to carefully assess the value of the information from parents and to determine how it should be included in diagnostic and therapeutical decisions.

Authors with CRIS profile

Viktoria Irlbauer-Müller Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Anna Eichler Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Mark Stemmler Lehrstuhl für Psychologische Diagnostik, Methodenlehre und Rechtspsychologie Oliver Kratz Department of Child and Adolescent Mental Health

How to cite

APA:

Irlbauer-Müller, V., Eichler, A., Stemmler, M., Moll, G., & Kratz, O. (2017). Parenting stress and the reliability of parental information in the diagnostics of children and adolescents with symptoms of psychiatric and behavioral disorders. Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie, 45(4), 303-309. https://dx.doi.org/10.1024/1422-4917/a000467

MLA:

Irlbauer-Müller, Viktoria, et al. "Parenting stress and the reliability of parental information in the diagnostics of children and adolescents with symptoms of psychiatric and behavioral disorders." Zeitschrift für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie und Psychotherapie 45.4 (2017): 303-309.

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