Are discrepancies among child,mother, and father reports on children's behavior related to parents' psychological symptoms and aspects of parent-child relationships?

Examined whether parents' symptoms and qualitative and quantitative aspects of parent–child relationships make unique contributions to mothers' and fathers' reports of, and mother–child, father–child, and father–mother discrepancies on, children's behavior. Participants were 100 children, aged 10–12, and their mothers and fathers. Parents' symptoms and parent–child relationships made unique contributions to both parents' ratings of externalizing behavior. Although parent–child relationship variables were related to both parents' ratings of internalizing behavior, only parents' symptoms made unique contributions. On mother–child and father–child discrepancies, differences emerged between mother and father, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Both fathers' and mothers' symptoms contributed to father–mother discrepancies on both behavior types, with parent–child relationships contributing unique variance to discrepancies on internalizing behavior. Results highlight the importance of each informant's symptoms and relationship variables in understanding informant discrepancies.     

Visual aids and structured criteria for improving visual inspection and interpretation of single-case designs

Because behavior analysis is a data-driven process, a critical skill for behavior analysts is accurate visual inspection and interpretation of single-case data. Study 1 was a basic study in which we increased the accuracy of visual inspection methods for A-B designs through two refinements of the split-middle (SM) method called the dual-criteria (DC) and conservative dual-criteria (CDC) methods. The accuracy of these visual inspection methods was compared with one another and with two statistical methods (Allison & Gorman, 1993; Gottman, 1981) using a computer-simulated Monte Carlo study. Results indicated that the DC and CDC methods controlled Type I error rates much better than the SM method and had considerably higher power (to detect real treatment effects) than the two statistical methods. In Study 2, brief verbal and written instructions with modeling were used to train 5 staff members to use the DC method, and in Study 3, these training methods were incorporated into a slide presentation and were used to rapidly (i.e., 15 min) train a large group of individuals (N = 87). Interpretation accuracy increased from a baseline mean of 55% to a treatment mean of 94% in Study 2 and from a baseline mean of 71% to a treatment mean of 95% in Study 3. Thus, Study 1 answered basic questions about the accuracy of several methods of interpreting A-B designs; Study 2 showed how that information could be used to increase the accuracy of human visual inspectors; and Study 3 showed how the training procedures from Study 2 could be modified into a format that would facilitate rapid training of large groups of individuals to interpret single-case designs.     

Nominal scale agreement among observers

Experiments are considered where each of a sample of subjects is assigned to one of C categories separately by each of a fixed or varying group of observers. Building on earlier publications, general procedures are proposed to analyze agreements and disagreements among observers. In the case of a varying group of observers, it is shown that it is not necessary to demand a constant number of observers per subject. In the case of a fixed group of observers, the problem of missing data is considered.The procedures are illustrated within the context of two clinical diagnosis examples. In the first example it is investigated which categories are relatively hard to distinguish from one another; a new theorem is applied that shows a useful property of the statistic kappa. In the second example it is investigated if a subgroup of observers can be found with a significantly higher degree of interobserver agreement.The author gratefully acknowledges the valuable suggestions by W. Molenaar, R. van Strik, R. Popping and the referees.     

Effects of the use of percentage agreement on behavioral observation reliabilities: A reassessment

The percentage agreement index has been and continues to be a popular measure of interobserver reliability in applied behavior analysis and child development, as well as in other fields in which behavioral observation techniques are used. An algebraic method and a linear programming method were used to assess chance-corrected reliabilities for a sample of past observations in which the percentage agreement index was used. The results indicated that, had kappa been used instead of percentage agreement, between one-fourth and three-fourth of the reported observations could be judged as unreliable against a lenient criterion and between one-half and three-fourths could be judged as unreliable against a more stringent criterion. It is suggested that the continued use of the percentage agreement index has seriously undermined the reliabilities of past observations and can no longer be justified in future studies.     

Parent vs. Self-Report: Contributions Toward Diagnosis of Adolescent Psychopathology

Assessment of psychopathology in adolescents can be complicated due to uncertainties about who should be considered the primary informant. While a multimethod, multiinformant approach to assessment allows for a thorough assessment, it can also result in contradictory findings. The purpose of this study was to use a sample of 121 adolescents to investigate issues of parent-adolescent agreement on behavior rating scales and a structured diagnostic interview. Additionally, this study evaluated whether adolescent report offers unique information to the assessment beyond the parent's report. The sample included both normal controls and adolescents who met criteria for diagnosis of an Internalizing or Externalizing disorder based on the DSM-IV criteria. Agreement between parents and adolescents on the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents—Revised (DICA-R) was low for ADHD (39.4%) and Externalizing Disorders (41.1%) and moderate for Internalizing Disorders (56.6%). A significant difference was found between the number of ADHD symptoms reported, with parents reporting more symptoms (M = 9.42) than adolescents (M = 8.34). Regression analysis indicated that the adolescent completed Youth Self-report (YSR) contributed unique information beyond the parent completed measures in predicting both the adolescent and the parent interviews for Internalizing Disorders. This finding emphasizes the need to continue to collect self-report information, especially when assessing Internalizing disorders, which inherently contain symptoms indicating high-risk behaviors such as suicide ideation.     

Measurement of depression: Comparison between self-reports and clinical assessments of depressed outpatients

Agreement among several depression scales was investigated as regard the relative influences of administration mode (self-rating or clinical rating) and scale content. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS), the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD), and three corresponding scales with identical structure and content but the alternative administration mode were administered to 47 outpatients with diagnoses of DSM-III major depression disorders. Correlations between the total scores and the degrees of association between corresponding items of different scales were calculated. The results suggest that differences in content contribute more to inter-scale discrepancy than differences in administration mode. The implications for the evaluation of outpatients with major depression are discussed.     

Cross-Informant Agreement in the Assessment of Social Phobia in Youth

In the present study involving children and adolescents with a principal diagnosis of social phobia, we measured parent–child agreement regarding social anxiety symptoms. Additionally, we examined variables related to the severity of the children's social phobia symptoms as reported by children and as rated by clinicians. Examination of cross-informant agreement indicated little difference between mean parent and children ratings of the children's social fears. In contrast, there was a significant difference in parent and children ratings of the children's avoidance, with parents endorsing greater degrees of social avoidance. Children's report of social avoidance was negatively related to scores on a measure of self-presentational concerns (i.e., social desirability). Clinicians' determination of the severity of the children's social phobia was also influenced by the children's self-presentation as well as parent report of social avoidance and children's depression scores. Thus, this differential weighting by the clinician of parent versus child report may be related to the finding that children's self-reported social avoidance was negatively related to their concerns regarding positive self-presentation. Results suggest the need to consider the impact of social desirability when examining clinical characteristics of children and adolescents with social phobia.     

A new Bayesian procedure for the estimation of the referees' decision thresholds and agreement. The case of professional handball refereeing

In double refereeing, agreement between referees is fundamental for the achievement of a flawless and smooth refereeing activity. Nonetheless, the agreeement can be affected by several external and internal factors, with a negative impact on the consistency of the refereeing and the fluidity of the game. The referee’s Decision Threshold (DT) is the limit above which the evidence of a foul results in the call of an infraction by the referee. It represents the individual refereeing style, and it is one of the factors that can contribute to low agreement between the referees. We present an application of a new Bayesian procedure to estimate referee’s DT in a typical refereeing task. To this end, 56 italian professional handball (FIGH) referees were asked to evaluate 96 potential foul plays, belonging to four different infraction types: 7-m throw, passive play, offensive foul, disciplinary sanctions. The proposed method provides information about: (i) referee’s individual DT; (ii) the agreement between pairs of referees (i.e., one-to-one); (iii) the agreement between each referee and all the other referees (i.e., one-to-total); (iv) the agreement between each referee and a reference referee (i.e., one-to-expert); (v) the proportion of agreement between the referees and a reference referee for each potential foul play. Sport federations would profit by this procedure in different ways: by using the information about the DT to train referees, by detecting referees with a low agreement with their colleagues or with the reference referee, by focusing training on specific plays to improve the arbitration class internal consistency.     

Using Personality Item Characteristics to Predict Single‐Item Internal Reliability,Retest Reliability,and Self–Other Agreement

The use of reliability estimates is increasingly scrutinized as scholars become more aware that test–retest stability and self–other agreement provide a better approximation of the theoretical and practical usefulness of an instrument than its internal reliability. In this study, we investigate item characteristics that potentially impact single‐item internal reliability, retest reliability, and self–other agreement. Across two large samples (N = 6690 and N = 4396), two countries (Estonia and The Netherlands), and two personality inventories (the NEO PI‐3 and the HEXACO‐PI‐R), results show that (i) item variance is a strong predictor of self–other agreement and retest reliability but not of single‐item internal reliability; (ii) item variance mediates the relations between evaluativeness and self–other agreement; and (iii) self–other agreement is predicted by observability and item domain. On the whole, weak relations between item length, negations, and item position (indicating effects of questionnaire length) on the one hand, and single‐item internal reliability, retest reliability, and self–other agreement on the other, were observed. In order to increase the predictive validity of personality scales, our findings suggest that during the construction of questionnaire items, researchers are advised to pay close attention especially to item variance, but also to evaluativeness and observability. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Εὐφραινέσθωσαν οἱ οὐρανοί, ‘Let the heavens rejoice’: an Anglican reflection on the 2014 Agreed Statement on Christology between the Anglican Communion and the Oriental Orthodox Churches

After acknowledging the importance of the Anglican–Oriental Orthodox Agreed Statement on Christology (2014) and explaining the perspective of this article, the rationale of Christology as confession and interpretation is explained and explored: its development of the fundamental theme of Christ the eternal Son, by his double solidarity in incarnation with humanity and Godhead relating and re-bonding Godhead and humanity. This theme, inherent in Peter’s confession of Jesus as Messiah, is essentially repeated by Paul and continuously interpreted in the Church’s unfolding self-understanding. Criticism of this process is mentioned and briefly countered. The continuity of the theme in the debates of the fourth and fifth centuries, its basis in principles of human relevance and divine commitment and its adequate expression in the Statement are indicated and affirmed. The prudent silence of the Agreement on technical refinements and definitions of Councils is noted. Finally, brief suggestions are offered in explanation of the continuance of the issue in ancient times and reflections on its relevance to modern Christology.