Table 4.
Sample Rubric for a Practitioner Interested in Predicting the Nature and Extent of Informant Discrepancies as Observed in Reports Gathered in Outpatient Referral Settingsa–c
| Informant pair | Magnitude of agreement | Direction of reports | What might disagreements represent? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent-Teacher | A/D: low (0.19) ATT: medium (0.44) RBB: medium (0.38) |
A/D: P>T ATT: P>T RBB: P>T |
Youths are expressing problem behavior in home settings or within parent–youth interactions to a greater degree than in school settings. |
| Parent-Youth | A/D: medium (0.45) ATT: medium (0.48) RBB: large (0.55) |
A/D: P>Y ATT: P>Y RBB: P>Y |
Youths may express a combination of observable forms of anxiety (avoidance of schoolmates), attention problems (difficulty completing tasks), and rule-breaking behavior (opposing teacher commands) and covert forms (e.g., worry) in home settings. Parents may base their reports on both observable behaviors and some of the covert behaviors. Conversely, youths may focus their reports only on covert behaviors expressed in home settings. |
| Teacher-Youth | A/D: low (0.16) ATT: medium (0.30) RBB: medium (0.32) |
A/D: T>Y ATT: T>Y RBB: T>Y |
Youths may express observable forms of anxiety (avoidance of schoolmates), attention problems (difficulty completing tasks), and rule-breaking behavior (opposing teacher commands) in school settings and on which teachers base their reports. Conversely, youths may focus their reports on covert behaviors expressed in home settings, which may have a lower base-rate of expression. |
Magnitudes of agreement based on effect sizes of small (r=0.10–0.29), medium (r=0.30–0.49), and large (r=0.50 and above), consistent with estimates reported elsewhere (Cohen 1988).
Predictions of informant-based reporting agreement and directions of reports (i.e., which informants report greater degrees of youth problems relative to other informants) are based on data reported for the Empirically-Based Scales of Anxious/Depressed (A/D), Attention Problems (ATT), and Rule-Breaking Behavior (RBB) of the Child Behavior Checklist, Teacher Report Form, and Youth Self-Report for parents (P), teachers (T), and youths (Y), respectively (Achenbach and Rescorla 2001).
Reporting agreement estimates based on Table 9-2 of Achenbach and Rescorla (2001) and reporting direction estimates based on Appendix D T scores for youths 12–18 (parent and teacher reports) and youths 11–18 (youth report).