Informant, gender and age differences in ratings of adolescent problem behaviour

The aim of this study was to determine gender and age differences and agreement among the reports of adolescent problem behaviour by parents, teachers, and adolescents themselves. For 1,122 11- to 18-year-olds, reports by parents, teachers, and adolescents were obtained. Multivariate regressions were performed to investigate the effect of informant, gender, and age on problem behaviour. Adolescents reported higher levels of problems than parents and teachers for all types of behaviour. Parents reported higher levels of problem behaviour than teachers. Gender differences among informants were dependent on type of problem behaviour. With increasing age, scores of adolescents, parents, and teachers diverged for most types of problems, with larger differences for older adolescents than for younger adolescents. Norms for adolescents need age adjustments for reports by adolescents, parents, and teachers. To obtain a complete view on children's problem behaviours information from multiple informants and differences among them is needed.