Parent and child reports of depressive symptoms in children at low and high risk of depression

Abstract

The K-SADS-E psychiatric interview was administered to children and parents (N = 220) from families containing proband parents who had previously been depressed or who were normal. Agreement between parents and their children about depressive symptoms in the children was significant but low. Boy's reports agreed more highly with their parents' reports about them than did girls' reports. Overall, the children reported more depressive symptoms than their parents reported about them and the overall pattern suggests that parents are relatively insensitive to their children's depressive symptomatology, but their reports show high specificity. The implications of these findings for research and clinical work are discussed.