Multi-informant ptsd symptom agreement across development and parent-child relationship quality

Childhood trauma is highly prevalent and is often associated with higher rates of substance use, depression, and suicide. Accurate diagnosis and symptom identification of posttraumatic stress is crucial when determining treatment, however clinicians must combine and integrate reports from both the primary caregiver and child/adolescent’s perspective. Historically, examination of these two perspectives has led to a pattern of low concordance rates across multiple disorders, leading clinicians to rely on clinical judgment to reconcile the differences and allowing for deleterious clinical implications. When considering factors contributing to symptom concordance, age of the child and the relationship quality between a primary caregiver and child have been explored, yet mixed results have resulted. In this study, data from three hundred and seventy-seven at risk or maltreated children from the Longitudinal Studies in Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) study were analyzed in a secondary data analysis. Results demonstrated high agreement between reporters (parent and child/adolescent) on PTSD symptoms, regardless of age and relationship quality. Results mirror findings within the extant literature, which largely report low to moderate PTSD symptom concordance rates between reporters. Clinical implications and study limitations were discussed.