Agreement between parents and adolescents on emotional and behavioral problems and its associated factors among Chinese school adolescents: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND Most studies about informant agreements on adolescents' emotional and behavioral problems have been conducted in Western countries, but this subject has not been well researched in China. The aim of this study was to evaluate the pattern of parent-adolescent agreement on adolescents' problems and its associated factors among school-age adolescents in China. METHODS This cross-sectional study was conducted in November and December of 2010. A questionnaire including the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), the Youth Self-Report (YSR), the Family Environment Scale (FES) and the characteristics of the child (age and gender), parents (parent-adolescent relationship and parental expectations) and family (family structure, negative life events) was distributed to our study population. A total of 2,199 Chinese adolescents (aged 11-18) from 15 public schools in Liaoning Province, who completed the questionnaire, became our final participants. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to assess parent-adolescent agreement, and linear regression analysis was used to explore the associated factors of parent-adolescent discrepancies on emotional and behavioral problems. RESULTS The parent-adolescent agreement on emotional and behavioral problems was high (mean r = 0.6). The scores of YSR were higher than those of CBCL. Factors that increased informant discrepancies on emotional and behavioral problems were boys, older age, the experience of negative life events, low levels of cohesion and organization, and high levels of conflict in the family. CONCLUSIONS A high level of parent-adolescent agreement on emotional and behavioral problems was found. Adolescents reported more problems than their parents did. Family environment is an important factor to be considered when interpreting informant discrepancies on the mental health of Chinese adolescents.