Abstract
One hundred seventy-four college students and a subset of their mothers and fathers provided ratings of college students’ emotional and behavioral functioning. College students and their mothers and fathers demonstrated variable levels of correspondence in their ratings of college students’ internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Similar findings were noted with t-test comparisons, with college students rating themselves as experiencing significantly higher levels of behavior problems than did their mothers and fathers. Further, college students’ ratings of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting and their perceptions of their parents predicted significantly their ratings of their own behavior problems. Although mothers’ communication reciprocity and perceptions of their college students served as significant predictors of mothers’ ratings, a different pattern of results occurred with paternal variables. Overall, these findings further the understanding of correspondence and predictors of cross-informant ratings of college students’ emotional and behavioral functioning.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Achenbach TM, Krukowski RA, Dumenci L, Ivanova MY (2005) Assessment of adult psychopathology: Meta-analyses and implications of cross-informant correlations. Psychol Bull 131:361–382
Achenbach TM, McConaughy SH, Howell CT (1987) Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications for cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychol Bull 101:213–232
Achenbach TM, Rescorla LA (2003) Manual for the ASEBA Adult Forms & Profiles.
Arnett JJ (2000) Emerging adulthood: A theory of development from the late teen through the twenties. Am Psychol 55:469–480
Bugental DB (1998) Parent Attribution Test (Manual). [On-Line]. Available: http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/∼bugental/pat.english.doc
Buri JR (1991) Parental authority questionnaire. J Pers Assess 57:110–119
Christensen A, Margolin G, Sullaway M (1992) Interparental agreement on child behavior problems. Psychol Assess 4:419–425
Digest of Education Statistics (2005) Retrieved August 30, 2006, from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d04/tables/dt04_291.asp
Duhig A, Renk K, Epstein MK, Phares V (2000) Interparental agreement on internalizing, externalizing, and total behavior problems: A meta-analysis. Clin Psychol: Sci Pract 7:435–453
Fitzgerald HE, Zucker RA, Maguin ET, Reider EE (1994) Time spent with child and parental agreement about preschool children’s behavior. Percept Mot Skills 79:336–338
Gallagher RP, Sysko HB, Zhang B (2001) National survey of counseling center directors: 2001. International Association of Counseling Services, Alexandria, VA
Hartos JL, Power TG (2000) Relations among single mothers’ awareness of their adolescents’ stressors, maternal monitoring, mother adolescent communication, and adolescent adjustment. J Adolesc Res 15:546–563
Hastings P, Grusec JE (1997) Conflict outcome as a function of parental accuracy in perceiving child cognitions and affect. Soc Dev 6:76–90
Jaccard J, Dittus PJ, Gordon VV (1998) Parent-adolescent congruency in reports of adolescent sexual behavior and in communications about sexual behavior. Child Dev 69:247–261
Kadison R, DiGeronimo TF (2004) College of the overwhelmed: The campus mental health crisis and what to do about it. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco
Neemann J, Harter S (1986) Manual for the self-perception profile for college students. University of Denver, Denver, CO
Olos L, Hoff E (2006) Gender ratios in European psychology. Eur Psychol 11:1–11
Ostertag PA, McNamara JR (1991) “Feminization” of psychology: The changing sex ratio and its implications for the profession. Psychol Women Q 15:349–369
Parker G, Tupling H, Brown LB (1979) A parental bonding instrument. Br J Med Psychol 52:1–10
Phares V (1992) Where’s poppa? The relative lack of attention to the role of fathers in child and adolescent psychopathology. Am Psychol 47:656–664
Phares V (1997) Accuracy of informants: Do parents think that mother knows best? Abnorm Child Psychol 25:165–171
Phares V., Renk K. (1998) Perceptions of parents: A measure of adolescents’ feelings about their parents. J Marriage Fam Ther 60:646–659
Renk K (2005) Cross-informant ratings of the behavior of children and adolescents: The “gold standard”. J Child Fam Stud 14:457–468
Renk K, Phares V (2004) Cross-informant ratings of social competence in children and adolescents. Clin Psychol Rev 24:239–254
Rosenbaum M, Ronen T (1997) Parents’ and children’s appraisals of each other’s anxiety while facing a common threat. J Clin Child Psychol 26:43–52
Tein J, Roosa MW, Michaels M (1994) Agreement between parent and child reports on parental behavior. J Marriage Fam 56:341–355
Wintre MG, Yaffe M Crowley J (1995) Perception of parental reciprocity scale (POPRS): Development and validation with adolescents and young adults. Soc Dev 4:129–148
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Kimberly Renk is currently an Associate Professor at the University of Central Florida (UCF) in Orlando, Florida, serving the Department of Psychology’s Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology at the University of Illinois, her Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology at Illinois State University, and her Doctoral degree in Clinical Psychology at the University of South Florida after completing a predoctoral internship in Clinical Psychology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center. Her current interests include parents’ perceptions of their children’s emotional and behavioral functioning and parent-child interactions. She and her graduate students pursue the study of these topics and provide clinical services to the community surrounding UCF through the Understanding Children and Families laboratory.
Reesa Donnelly is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.A. in Psychology from the University of Virginia and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her major research interests include parent-child relationships in the context of cognitive development and health psychology.
Jenny Klein is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.S. in Psychology from the University of Florida and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her main research interests are in the area of family interactions, parenting, and child emotional and behavioral problems in minority populations.
Arazais Oliveros is a Doctoral student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.A. in psychology from Florida International University and her M.S. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Central Florida. Her major research interests involve the area of children and parenting, especially in families with risk factors for child maltreatment (e.g., marital abuse, medical concerns).
Elizabeth Baksh is a Graduate student at the University of Central Florida. She received her B.S. in psychology and religious studies from the University of Miami and her M.S.W. from the University of South Florida. Her major research interests include parent-child relationships in the context of pediatric psychology.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Renk, K., Donnelly, R., Klein, J. et al. Cross-Informant Ratings of the Emotional and Behavioral Functioning of College Students. J Youth Adolescence 37, 193–210 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9149-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-006-9149-z