The Impact of the Big Five Personality Traits on Reports of Child Behavior Problems by Different Informants

• Published in: Journal of abnormal child psychology Vol. 33; no. 2; pp. 231 - 240
• Main Authors: Kroes, Gert, Veerman, Jan W, De Bruyn, Eric E.J
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg Springer-Verlag New York, LLC 01.04.2005; Springer; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Adolescent; Behavior; Behavior Problems; Behavioural problems; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child Behavior; Child Behavior Disorders - diagnosis; Child Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Child psychology; Children; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Five factor model; Humans; Informants; Interrater reliability; Male; Medical sciences; Methodology. Experimentation; Mothers; Observer Variation; Personality; Personality Inventory; Personality Traits; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Reporting; Severity of Illness Index; Techniques and methods; Videotape Recording; Human; Neuroticism; Evaluation; Teacher; cross-informant agreement; Personality; Experimental study; Behavioral disorder; Symptomatology; School age; Extraversion introversion; Mother; bias; informant characteristic; Family environment; Social worker; Child; Comparative study; child assessment
• ISSN: 0091-0627; 2730-7166; 1573-2835; 2730-7174
• DOI: 10.1007/s10802-005-1830-2

The present study compared ratings of a standardized sample of child behavior problems across informants and examined the effects of informant personality traits on child behavior ratings by mothers, teachers, and group-care workers. Participants were 55 clinic-referred children, aged 6-12 years. All informants watched and rated the same 17-min videotaped behavior sample of a familiar target child. Independent trained observers rated the same videotapes to provide criterion ratings. Informants' personality traits were assessed using the NEO Five Factor Personality Inventory. Results showed that mothers reported fewer behavior problems than did the professionals, that the informants who were familiar with the child reported more behavior problems than did the independent observers, and that higher levels of informant neuroticism were related to higher ratings of child behavior problems in the case of the professionals, but not in the case of the mothers. In addition, group-care workers who were less extraverted and open were likely to report more child behavior problems than group-care workers with normal levels of extraversion and openness. Finally, no relations were found between agreeableness or conscientiousness and ratings of child behavior. Findings suggest that professionals who work with children are not immune to distortions based on their own personality.KEY WORDS: informant characteristics; bias; cross-informant agreement; child assessment.