2.53 DISCREPANCIES BETWEEN PARENT AND CHILD REPORTS OF FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ASSOCIATION WITH CHILD IMPAIRMENT

Objectives: The objectives of this study are as follows: 1) to examine discrepancies between parent and child reports of family cohesion and conflict; and 2) to investigate whether these discrepancies are associated with severity of child impairment. Methods: Participants are patients and their parents referred for an evaluation at a mood specialty clinic through a hospital-based behavioral health outpatient clinic. The sample group size consists of 124 patient-parent dyads. The majority of the parents (92 percent) and patients (63 percent) are female. Mean parent age is 46.8 years, and mean patient age is 14.7 years. Measures are based on the Family Environment Scale and Columbia Impairment Scale, both of which are parent and child report-rating scales. These measures were extracted from a data registry of the mood specialty clinic. Analyses include calculation of discrepancy scores, which is the difference between the z-scores of the raw scores of parent and child reports of Family Cohesion and Conflict Scales of the Family Environment Scale. In addition, t-tests, correlations, and regressions were performed. Results: Parents report less family cohesion than the children, but both reporters reveal similar levels of family conflict. Regression analyses show that child report of family cohesion was associated negatively with both child and parent reports of child impairment. The discrepancy between child and parent report of family cohesion (i.e., parent reporting less cohesion than child) is associated significantly with parent report of child impairment. Child report of family conflict is associated positively with both child and parent reports of child impairment. When children report more family conflict than parents, the children also report more impairment. On the other hand, when the parents report more family conflict than the children, the parents report more child impairment. Conclusions: There are discrepancies in parent and child reports of family environment that are consistent with other research studies. Parent-child discrepancies on family environment are associated with child impairment more so than parent report.