Parents' and Teachers' Concordance with Children's Self-Ratings of Suicidality: Findings from a High-Risk Sample

• Published in: Suicide & life-threatening behavior Vol. 36; no. 2; pp. 167 - 181
• Main Authors: Thompson, Richard, Dubowitz, Howard, English, Diana J., Nooner, Kate B., Wike, Traci, Bangdiwala, Shrikant I., Runyan, Desmond K., Briggs, Ernestine C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.04.2006; Guilford Press; Guilford
• Subjects: Academic Achievement; Achievement; Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Adults; Aggression; At Risk Persons; At Risk Students; At risk youth; Biological and medical sciences; Caregiver Child Relationship; Caregivers; Child; Child Abuse; Child Behavior Disorders - epidemiology; Child Health; Childhood Needs; Class Size; Ethnicity; Faculty; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Health Needs; Humans; Interpersonal Relationship; Male; Medical sciences; Mental Disorders; Mental Health; Mental Health Programs; Observer Variation; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; Parents; Parents & parenting; Prevention; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Racial Differences; Risk Assessment; Risk Factors; Self Disclosure (Individuals); Social Behavior; Somatoform Disorders - epidemiology; Suicide; Suicide, Attempted - statistics & numerical data; Suicides & suicide attempts; Surveys and Questionnaires; Symptoms (Individual Disorders); Teacher Attitudes; Teacher Characteristics; Teachers; Withdrawal (Psychology); Young Children; Human; High risk; Parent; Risk factor; Teacher; Self; Suicide; Child
• ISSN: 0363-0234; 1943-278X
• DOI: 10.1521/suli.2006.36.2.167

This study examined concordance between adult and child reports of child suicidality using a sample of 1,046 8‐year‐old children at risk for, or having experienced, maltreatment. Concordance was low with both caregivers and teachers. For children reporting no suicidality, caregiver‐child agreement was associated with few transitions in caregiver and low social withdrawal and aggression, and teacher‐child agreement was associated with non‐White ethnicity, good academic performance, and low thought problems. For children reporting suicidality, care‐giver‐child agreement was associated with perceptions of child mental health needs, aggression, and somatic complaints, and teacher‐child agreement was associated with thought problems.