Collateral Reports and Cross-Informant Agreement about Adult Psychopathology in 14 Societies

Eyes of the beholders: Multi-method relationships between internalizing and externalizing symptom dimensions and aggression risk

Although aggression occurs across a range of disorders, associations between dimensions of psychopathology and self- and other-directed aggression are not well understood. Investigating associations between psychopathology dimensions and aggression helps further understanding about the etiology of aggression, and ultimately, can inform intervention and prevention strategies. This study adopted a multi-method approach to examine associations between internalizing and externalizing dimensions of psychopathology and self- and other-directed aggression as a function of reporter (participant and informant) and modality of aggression measurement (subjective and objective). Participants were an unselected sample of 151 racially diverse adults recruited from the community. Dimensions of psychopathology were assessed using interview and questionnaire reports from participants and collateral informants, and forms of aggression were measured via subjective reports and an objective, laboratory aggression paradigm. Analyses of participant-reported psychological symptom data consistently linked externalizing symptoms to other-directed aggression, and internalizing symptoms to self-directed aggression. Results across informant and participant reporters replicated prior findings showing a significant interaction between internalizing and externalizing dimensions in predicting intimate partner violence. Most other effects in informant models were nonsignificant. The findings uncover consistency in and replicability of relationships between dimensions of psychopathology and certain manifestations of aggression and highlight the importance of examining multiple forms of aggression in etiological research. Examining aggression through a transdiagnostic lens can help us better understand and intervene upon processes implicated in devasting forms of self- and other-directed aggression.

The Operations Triad Model and Youth Mental Health Assessments: Catalyzing a Paradigm Shift in Measurement Validation

Researchers strategically assess youth mental health by soliciting reports from multiple informants. Typically, these informants (e.g., parents, teachers, youth themselves) vary in the social contexts where they observe youth. Decades of research reveal that the most common data conditions produced with this approach consist of discrepancies across informants' reports (i.e., informant discrepancies). Researchers should arguably treat these informant discrepancies as domain-relevant information: data relevant to understanding youth mental health domains (e.g., anxiety, depression, aggression). Yet, historically, in youth mental health research as in many other research areas, one set of paradigms has guided interpretations of informant discrepancies: Converging Operations and the Multi-Trait Multi-Method Matrix (MTMM). These paradigms (a) emphasize shared or common variance observed in multivariate data, and (b) inspire research practices that treat unique variance (i.e., informant discrepancies) as measurement confounds, namely random error and/or rater biases. Several yearsw ago, the Operations Triad Model emerged to address a conceptual problem that Converging Operations does not address: Some informant discrepancies might reflect measurement confounds, whereas others reflect domain-relevant information. However, addressing this problem requires more than a conceptual paradigm shift beyond Converging Operations. This problem necessitates a paradigm shift in measurement validation. We advance a paradigm (Classifying Observations Necessitates Theory, Epistemology, and Testing [CONTEXT]) that addresses problems with using the MTMM in youth mental health research. CONTEXT optimizes measurement validity by guiding researchers to leverage (a) informants that produce domain-relevant informant discrepancies, (b) analytic procedures that retain domain-relevant informant discrepancies, and (c) study designs that facilitate detecting domain-relevant informant discrepancies.

Older adult psychopathology: international comparisons of self-reports, collateral reports, and cross-informant agreement

OBJECTIVES

To conduct international comparisons of self-reports, collateral reports, and cross-informant agreement regarding older adult psychopathology.

PARTICIPANTS

We compared self-ratings of problems (e.g. I cry a lot) and personal strengths (e.g. I like to help others) for 10,686 adults aged 60-102 years from 19 societies and collateral ratings for 7,065 of these adults from 12 societies.

MEASUREMENTS

Data were obtained via the Older Adult Self-Report (OASR) and the Older Adult Behavior Checklist (OABCL; Achenbach et al., ).

RESULTS

Cronbach's alphas were .76 (OASR) and .80 (OABCL) averaged across societies. Across societies, 27 of the 30 problem items with the highest mean ratings and 28 of the 30 items with the lowest mean ratings were the same on the OASR and the OABCL. Q correlations between the means of the 0-1-2 ratings for the 113 problem items averaged across all pairs of societies yielded means of .77 (OASR) and .78 (OABCL). For the OASR and OABCL, respectively, analyses of variance (ANOVAs) yielded effect sizes (ESs) for society of 15% and 18% for Total Problems and 42% and 31% for Personal Strengths, respectively. For 5,584 cross-informant dyads in 12 societies, cross-informant correlations averaged across societies were .68 for Total Problems and .58 for Personal Strengths. Mixed-model ANOVAs yielded large effects for society on both Total Problems (ES = 17%) and Personal Strengths (ES = 36%).

CONCLUSIONS

The OASR and OABCL are efficient, low-cost, easily administered mental health assessments that can be used internationally to screen for many problems and strengths.

Bottom-Up and Top-Down Paradigms for Psychopathology: A Half-Century Odyssey

Bottom-up paradigms prioritize empirical data from which to derive conceptualizations of psychopathology. These paradigms use multivariate statistics to identify syndromes of problems that tend to co-occur plus higher-order groupings such as those designated as internalizing and externalizing. Bottom-up assessment instruments obtain self-ratings and collateral ratings of behavioral, emotional, social, and thought problems and strengths for ages 1½-90+. Ratings of population samples provide norms for syndrome and higher-order scales for each gender, at different ages, rated by different informants, in relation to multicultural norms. The normed assessment instruments operationalize the empirically derived syndromes and higher-order groupings for applications to clinical services, research, and training. Because cross-informant agreement is modest and no single informant provides comprehensive assessment data, software compares ratings by different informants. Top-down paradigms prioritize conceptual representations of the nature and structure of psychopathology, as exemplified by psychodynamic, DSM/ICD, and HiTOP paradigms. Although these paradigms originated with observations, they tend to prioritize conceptual representations over empirical data.

The Application of the Adult Self-Report and the Adult Behavior Checklist Form to Chinese Adults: Syndrome Structure, Inter-Informant Agreement, and Cultural Comparison

Given the global public health burden of mental illness, there is a critical need for culturally validated psychopathology assessment tools that perform well in diverse societies. This study examines the psychometric properties of the Adult Self-Report (ASR) and Adult Behavioral Checklist (ABCL) from the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessments in adults in China. Chinese adults (N = 1276) and their spouses completed the ASR and ABCL, respectively. We conducted confirmatory factor analysis on 99 ASR items and 93 ABCL items. Estimators of model fit confirmed that both measures demonstrated excellent fit (e.g., root mean square error of approximation = 0.016 and 0.018, respectively). Syndrome loadings on both measures were satisfactory but generally higher on the ASR. Neither gender nor education had significant effects, but there were informant x gender effects on most problem scales. Cross-informant agreement correlations between the ASR and ABCL were medium to large. Findings from this novel sample of Chinese adults are consistent with previous validation studies supporting the dimensionality, syndrome structure, gender differences, and inter-informant agreement of the ASR and ABCL. Our findings contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of mental health assessment and offer a psychometrically sound approach to measuring adult psychopathology in Chinese populations.

Neurocognitive profiles in adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

The objectives of this study were to assess the neuropsychological performance (NP) of adolescents and young adults with congenital heart disease (CHD), comparing them with a group of healthy controls, to determine whether there are different neurocognitive phenotypes in CHD, and to identify their relation to sociodemographic, neonatal, clinical and psychological adjustment variables.

METHODS

A total of 217 CHD patients (116 male, aged 15.73±2.68 years) and 80 controls (35 male, age 16.76±2.22 years) underwent an extensive neuropsychological assessment and analysis of psychological adjustment.

RESULTS

CHD patients had significantly poorer NP than healthy controls in all neurocognitive domains. Three different phenotypes of NP in CHD patients were identified: non-impaired (NI), moderately impaired (MI) and globally impaired (GI). They differed in all dimensions of NP. The GI cluster showed fewer years of schooling (p=0.025) and lower neonatal indicators such as head circumference (p=0.019), 1-min Apgar score (p=0.006), birth weight (p=0.05) and length (p=0.034) than the NI cluster. In the MI and GI clusters, there were more cyanotic forms of disease, including tetralogy of Fallot and transposition of the great arteries. The GI cluster presented more difficulties with psychological adjustment, including social (p=0.038), attention (p=0.001) and aggressive (p=0.003) problems.

CONCLUSIONS

CHD patients have poorer NP than controls. NP in the CHD group can be classified in three clusters that reflect different levels of neuropsychological functioning, which is sensitive to social, neonatal and psychological adjustment variables.

Empirically based assessment and taxonomy of psychopathology for ages 1½-90+ years: Developmental, multi-informant, and multicultural findings

BACKGROUND

Originating in the 1960s, the Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (ASEBA) comprises a family of instruments for assessing problems and strengths for ages 1½-90+ years.

PURPOSE

To provide an overview of the ASEBA, related research, and future directions for empirically based assessment and taxonomy.

CONTENT

Standardized, multi-informant ratings of transdiagnostic dimensions of behavioral, emotional, social, and thought problems are hierarchically scored on narrow-spectrum syndrome scales, broad-spectrum internalizing and externalizing scales, and a total problems (general psychopathology) scale. DSM-oriented and strengths scales are also scored. The instruments and scales have been iteratively developed from assessments of clinical and population samples of hundreds of thousands of individuals. Items, instruments, scales, and norms are tailored to different kinds of informants for ages 1½-5, 6-18, 18-59, and 60-90+ years. To take account of differences between informants' ratings, parallel instruments are completed by parents, teachers, youths, adult probands, and adult collaterals. Syndromes and Internalizing/Externalizing scales derived from factor analyses of each instrument capture variations in patterns of problems that reflect different informants' perspectives. Confirmatory factor analyses have supported the syndrome structures in dozens of societies. Software displays scale scores in relation to user-selected multicultural norms for the age and gender of the person being assessed, according to ratings by each type of informant. Multicultural norms are derived from population samples in 57 societies on every inhabited continent. Ongoing and future research includes multicultural assessment of elders; advancing transdiagnostic progress and outcomes assessment; and testing higher order structures of psychopathology.

Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Parent-Adolescent Discrepancies: Existing Findings and Future Directions

As summarized in this commentary, the first generation of cross-informant agreement research focused on perceptions of child and adolescent mental health. Contributions of this research include demonstrating that modest cross-informant agreement is a very robust phenomenon, utilizing numerous statistical approaches to measure degree of agreement, and identifying many factors that moderate agreement. An important focus of this work has been using multi-society international comparisons to examine cross-cultural similarities and differences in cross-informant agreement. The articles in this Special Issue represent a significant paradigm shift in which cross-informant agreement is examined as an independent variable predicting a wide variety of outcomes. Furthermore, moving beyond perceptions of adolescent mental health, these articles compare parent and adolescent perceptions of diverse aspects of family functioning (e.g., family conflict, parent-adolescent communication, family relationships, parental authority). Additionally, the research presented in this Special Issue employs innovative and sophisticated statistical techniques. Although the Special Issue represents some first steps toward considering cross-cultural aspects of perceptions of family functioning, much work still needs to be done in this area. Some suggestions for future research strategies to accomplish this goal conclude this commentary.