A Comparison of Parent and Child Perception of the Child's Behavior

Abstract

When children are brought to a clinic because of behavioral disturbances, parents are usually asked to complete several forms, including ones which describe the children's behavior. In this study children as well as parents were asked to complete the behavioral description form. Of 52 items on the questionnaire, a significant level of agreement (p ≤ .05) was found on only 7 items, suggesting that parent and child perceive the child's behavior differently. Because clinicians and others dealing with children often depend solely on the parent's description of behavior in the evaluation process, they need to be aware of this discrepancy when making use of behavior rating forms during the evaluation of children with behavior problems.