Informant agreement between children born with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and their parents on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ)

Abstract

Informant discrepancies can affect the assessment, classification, and treatment of child psychopathology. Scores on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) from different informants have shown to be low to moderately correlated. This study examined agreement between 323 children born with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) and their parents to examine whether they follow similar patterns in agreement as the general population. The study investigated whether gender of the child, cleft visibility, and presence of additional difficulty affected informant agreement. Overall, the results suggest that children born with CL/P and their parents follow similar patterns of agreement on the SDQ as the general population. Gender of the child, cleft visibility, and presence of additional condition did not affect the discrepancy between children’s and parents’ reporting; the scores between children and parents remained low to moderately correlated. Results indicate that children with CL/P and their parents provide different information on the SDQ, and both self- and parent-reports are valuable in the assessment of children’s mental health. These results add weight to the notion that children with CL/P and their parents may not be qualitatively different than children and parents in the general population. As with the general population, we should base clinical judgment on a mixture of both informants’ reports.