The Relationship Between Parent and Teacher Ratings on the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents

open_access
Open Access
Author:
Rochette, Sarah
Graduate Program:
School Psychology
Degree:
Doctor of Philosophy
Document Type:
Dissertation
Date of Defense:
May 20, 2008
Committee Members:
Marley Watkins, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Robert Leslie Hale, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Pui Wa Lei, Committee Member
Edward A Smith, Committee Member
David Lee, Committee Member
Keywords:
Behavior rating scales
behavior ratings
interrater agreement
informant agreement
cross-informant agreement
Abstract:
Best practices in the assessment of emotional/behavioral disorders suggest that behavior ratings be obtained from adults who observe children in their natural settings of home and school, such as parents and teachers. A problem arises with the interpretation of discrepancies that typically occur between parent and teacher behavior ratings. Specifically, parent and teacher ratings correlate only moderately with one another for both externalizing (overactive) and internalizing (underactive) behaviors. Rating scale item content and format may be a contributing factor in the low to moderate correlations between parent and teacher ratings. Traditional behavior rating scales are typically characterized by contextually removed, inferential, and ambiguously worded items whose response format involves subjective measures of the frequency or intensity of behaviors. The Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents (ASCA; McDermott, Marston, & Stott, 1993) teacher rating scale and accompanying parent form, the ASCA-Home version (ASCA-H; Watkins & McDermott, 2002), avoid this type of item content and response format by providing clear, observable behavioral descriptions within specific situations for which informants indicate the presence or absence of a behavior. The present study examines the correlations between parent and teacher ratings for a sample of 374 kindergarten through grade eight students on the Overactivity and Underactivity scales of the ASCA and ASCA-H. It was hypothesized that the ASCA rating scales' unique item content and format would result in higher correlations between parent and teacher ratings than a previous meta-analysis of behavior ratings reported (Achenbach, McConaughy, & Howell, 1987). However, the correlations obtained for the Overactivity scale (r = .35) and the Underactivity scale (r = .11) were not significantly different from meta-analytic findings of previous research on parent-teacher agreement. Limitations of the present research as well as factors other than rating scale format that could account for low to moderate correlations between parent and teacher ratings are discussed. Finally, suggestions are made for future research of parent-teacher agreement on behavior rating scales.