Factors influencing mother–child reports of depressive symptoms and agreement among clinically referred depressedyoungsters in Hungary

Background atric assessments of children typically involve two informants, the child and the parent. Understanding discordance in their reports has been of interest to clinicians and researchers. We examine differences between mothersʹ and childrenʹs report of childrenʹs depressive symptom severity, and factors that may influence their reports and level of agreement. We hypothesized that agreement between mother and child would improve if (1) the mother is depressed, due to improved recall of mood congruent symptoms, (2) the child is older, due to better social-cognitive and communication skills, and (3) the child is a female. s ts were 354 children (158 girls; mean age 11.69 years, SD: 2.05 years) with Major Depressive Disorder. Depressive symptoms were evaluated by a semi-structured interview separately with the mother and the child. Agreement on symptom severity was based on concordance of the presence and extent of symptoms. s al reports were significantly higher than their sonʹs but not daughtersʹ. Girls, particularly with increasing age, reported higher levels of symptoms; however mothersʹ reports were not affected by child sex or age. Maternal depression predicted more severe symptom reports for both children and mothers. Agreement between the mother and the child increased as children got older. tions me clinician interviewed the mother and the child, which might inflate rates of agreement. However, this method mirrors clinical evaluation. sion a clinical interview one must consider the age and sex of the child and the depressive state of the mother in assimilating information about the child.