Parent, Teacher and Observational Reports of Emotional and Behavioral Problems in Young Autistic Children.
Melanie Palmer, Joanne Tarver, Virginia Carter Leno and 7 others
PMID 35028809WHAT IT FOUND
Parents reported more emotional and behavioral problems than teachers in 83 young autistic children.
Parenting stress was linked to parent reports only. Minimally verbal children showed more observed challenging behaviors. Use home and school views together.
Key findings
01Parents reported more irritability, hyperactivity, emotional and behavioral problems than teachers; parent-teacher agreement scores ranged from 0.04 to 0.30.
02Higher parenting stress was associated with more parent-reported emotional and behavioral problems, but not with teacher reports.
03Being minimally verbal was associated with more observed challenging behavior, and this was the only factor associated with observed behavior after controlling for other variables.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study is correlational, so it cannot show whether parenting stress affects reports or whether child problems cause stress. Observations were done in a research setting, not at home or school, so differences between settings cannot be separated from differences between informants. Teacher and school details were limited, so teacher experience, workplace stress, classroom support and number of adults in the room were not considered. The sample came from families taking part in an autism intervention study, so it may represent motivated families particularly concerned about emotional and behavioral problems. Teacher reports were available for 76 of 83 children, and one child lacked parent report data for the observed analysis. The estimate of agreement for emotional problems was imprecise.
Declared interests
The paper states that funding came from Programme Grants for Applied Research. No other conflict-of-interest information is given in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that stressed parents overestimate their child's problems. The study only shows an association, and stress may reflect problems being more visible at home.