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The majority of youth living in the United States experience a potentially traumatic event (PTE) by 18 years of age, with many experiencing multiple PTEs. Variation in the nature and range of PTE exposure differentially impacts youth functioning, although this association is poorly understood. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify patterns of PTE exposure from caregiver and youth report in a treatment-seeking sample of children and adolescents (N = 701) and examined how these patterns predict youths' behavioral health outcomes. We identified four classes based on both caregiver and youth reports of PTE exposure, with the best-fitting model representing a constrained measurement model across reporters; these included high polyvictimization, moderate polyvictimization (general), moderate polyvictimization (interpersonal), and low polyvictimization classes. Prevalence of classes varied across reporters, and agreement in classification based on caregiver and youth report was mixed. Despite these differences, we observed similar patterns of association between caregiver- and youth-reported classes and their respective ratings of posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms, as well as both caregiver and therapist ratings of problem behavior, with Cohen's d effect size estimates of significant differences ranging from d = 0.25 to d = 0.51. The PTE exposure classes did not differ with respect to ratings of child functioning. Findings highlight the importance of gathering information from multiple informants.

A multiperspective approach is beneficial for obtaining reliable and multifaceted pictures of child behaviour problems. The goal of the present study is to examine interrater agreement on school-based effort avoidance between children receiving child welfare services, parents, and social workers. Given previous findings, interrater agreement is expected to be low. Self-reported data on school-based effort avoidance were gathered for children and adolescents in child welfare services. Additionally, social workers (using the Teacher-Report Checklist for social and learning behaviour) and parents (using the parallel version of the self-rating questionnaire on school-based effort avoidance) were asked to complete an external assessment tool to compare children's perspectives with the ratings of significant adults. The results confirmed significant discrepancies between parents' and children's ratings on effort avoidance tendencies. Furthermore, there were only small to moderate correlations between children's self-ratings and the adults' assessments; however, the consensus between adults was higher than the interrater agreement between children and social workers. Discrepancies in ratings from multiple informants underline the importance of integrating multiple perspectives, especially children's perspectives, in the diagnostic process in order to plan and adapt appropriate care and treatment.

Attachment theory assumes that trust in caregivers' support and exploration are closely related. Little research tried to investigate this link, nor focuses on mechanisms that might explain this association. The present studies examined whether trust is related to exploration through a serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation. In Study 1, 212 children, aged 8-13, completed questionnaires assessing trust, openness to negative affect, self-regulation and exploration. The results showed that trust predicted exploration, but only to the extent to which openness to negative affect and self-regulation were involved too. Study 2 refined these findings (n = 59, aged 9-12) using a behavioral measure of openness to negative affect and exploration, and with mother-reported self-regulation. Replicating this serial indirect effect of openness to negative affect and self-regulation with multiple informants and methods, the present studies advance our understanding of how trust might foster exploration in preadolescence. ispartof: SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHOLOGY vol:60 issue:4 pages:309-322 ispartof: location:England status: published

Research summary This study examines the exit behavior of emerging market MNCs in the context of the parent company (PC)–foreign affiliate (FA) relationship. Specifically, we consider business relatedness as a moderating variable and examine its impact on the relationship between a FA's international performance and its exit decision from a foreign market. Our results, based on data collected from multiple informants in 180 Chinese firms, indicate that product relatedness and intangible resources relatedness have a different moderating impact on the FA performance-FA exit decision relationship. Implications of these findings along with the limitations of the study are discussed. Managerial summary Although the research on international entry and expansion is particularly important, an aspect which has been largely ignored in the literature is the exit behavior of firms. This study examines whether the extent to which a foreign subsidiary is similar to its parent's core business may influence the firm's exit decision. The findings indicate that managers are more likely to exit a poorly-performing FA if there is a high (versus low) level of product relatedness between the FA and its PC's core business. The results also suggest that intangible resources relatedness exerts a different contingent effect on the FA performance-FA exit relationship from product relatedness.

Accessible summary Patients' satisfaction is scarcely studied within the context of community treatment for adolescents. Thus, this study adopts a multiple perspective on patients' satisfaction (including service users as well as staff members). The results highlighted that all informants (patients, foster carers in foster homes and professional caregivers from community treatment teams) perceived the patients to be satisfied, with foster carers reporting the highest patient satisfaction rate. Considering the patient satisfaction rate from multiple perspectives provides complementary understandings. Clinical outcomes and, specifically, a reduction in emotional difficulties were related to patient's satisfaction, but only from the patients' perspective. Abstract Community treatment (CT) teams in Switzerland provide care to patients who are unable to use regular child and adolescent mental health services (i.e. inpatient and outpatients facilities). No study has considered patients' self-rated satisfaction alongside with staff members' perspectives on patient satisfaction. Thus, adopting a cross-sectional survey design, we collected patients' satisfaction using the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8), rated by multiple informants (patients, foster carers in foster homes and professional caregivers from CT teams). Professional caregivers assessed clinical outcomes using the Health of the Nation Outcome Scale for Children and Adolescents. The results indicated that all informants were satisfied with the community treatment teams. The satisfaction scores were not correlated across informants; however, the alleviation of emotional symptoms was correlated with patients' satisfaction. This study indicated that the use of a combined approach including the views of service users and professionals gives important complementary information. Finally, in our sample, lower emotional symptoms were linked to enhanced patient satisfaction. This study demonstrated the importance of considering multiple perspectives to obtain the most accurate picture of patients' satisfaction. Second, focusing on the reduction of emotional symptoms might lead to a higher degree of patients' satisfaction.

Children with poor emotion knowledge (EK) skills are at risk for externalizing problems; less is known about early internalizing behavior. We examined multiple facets of EK and social-emotional experiences relevant for internalizing difficulties, including loneliness, victimization, and peer rejection, in Head Start preschoolers (N = 134; M = 60 months). Results based on multiple informants suggest that facets of EK are differentially related to negative social-emotional experiences and internalizing behavior and that sex plays a moderating role. Behavioral EK was associated with self-reported loneliness, victimization/rejection, and parent-reported internalizing symptoms. Emotion recognition and expressive emotion knowledge were related to self-reported loneliness, and emotion situation knowledge was related to parent-reported internalizing symptoms and negative peer nominations. Sex moderated many of these associations, suggesting that EK may operate differently for girls versus boys in the preschool social context. Results are discussed with regard to the role of EK for social development and intervention implications.

Children's prior attitudes toward school may be an important entry factor to consider in their initial adjustment to kindergarten. This short-term longitudinal study examined children's affective orientations and other school-related perceptions and approaches to learning in late preschool and then 1 to 2 months after entry into kindergarten. Child, parent, and teacher reports were obtained, and classroom practices were observed. Findings showed that children who anticipated liking school demonstrated more positive approaches and adjustment in kindergarten than did less enthusiastic children. Children's approaches to learning in the classroom, reported by teachers and parents, were similar across the transition from preschool to kindergarten, despite notable differences in practices. Recommendations for practice include attending to children's affective orientations, involving multiple informants in school readiness assessments, and fostering communication among teachers in school transition activities.

Methods for multiple informants help to estimate the marginal effect of each multiple source predictor and formally compare the strength of their association with an outcome. We extend multiple informant methods to the case of hierarchical data structures to account for within cluster correlation. We apply the proposed method to examine the relationship between features of the food environment near schools and children's body mass index z-scores (BMIz). Specifically, we compare the associations between two different features of the food environment (fast food restaurants and convenience stores) with BMIz and investigate how the association between the number of fast food restaurants or convenience stores and child's BMIz varies across distance from a school. The newly developed methodology enhances the types of research questions that can be asked by investigators studying effects of environment on childhood obesity and can be applied to other fields.

This study assessed the genetic and environmental contributions to peer difficulties in the early school years. Twins' peer difficulties were assessed longitudinally in kindergarten (796 twins, Mage = 6.1 years), Grade 1 (948 twins, Mage = 7.1 years), and Grade 4 (868 twins, Mage = 10 years) through multiple informants. The multivariate results revealed that genetic factors accounted for a strong part of both yearly and stable peer difficulties. At the univariate level, the genetic contributions emerged progressively, as did a growing consensus among informants with respect to those who experienced peer difficulties. These results underline the need to intervene early and persistently, and to target the child and the peer context to prevent peer difficulties and their consequences.

Aims: This paper describes the emotional and behavioural adjustment of children born very preterm (VPT) at early school age. Of particular interest was the degree of agreement between parents and teachers, and the extent of situational (parent or teacher) and pervasive (parent and teacher reported) adjustment problems. Methods: A regionally representative cohort of 104 VPT (≤33 weeks gestation) and 108 full-term (FT) children born during 1998–2000 was studied prospectively to age six. At corrected age six, child emotional and behavioural adjustment was assessed using the parent and teacher rated strengths and difficulties questionnaires. Results: According to parents, 6-year-old VPT children had odds of emotional, inattention/hyperactivity and peer problems that were 2.7 to 3.8 times higher than their FT peers. Similar difficulties were identified by teachers, but odds were much lower and nonsignificant (1.1–1.8). Agreement between parents and teachers was lower in the VPT than the FT group (mean alternative chance-correlated coefficient , AC1= 0.63 vs. 0.80). Examination of the extent of pervasively identified adjustment problems showed that VPT children had higher rates of emotional (6% vs. 1%) and inattention/hyperactivity problems (12% vs. 6%) than FT children. Conclusions: Early school age, VPT children are at increased risk of pervasive emotional problems and inattention/hyperactivity, although these risks are relatively modest. The use of multiple informants to assess VPT children's well-being is important to minimise the effects of report source bias and the over-identification of adjustment problems in children born VPT.

The psychometric properties of the self-report version of the Antisocial Processes Screening Device (APSD; Frick & Hare, 2001), a rating scale developed to assess traits associated with the construct of psychopathy in youth, was tested in a sample of 91 non-referred young adolescents with an average age of 13.38 (SD = 1.75) at the initial assessment. The sample was recruited from a large community-wide screening, where youth with conduct problems and youth high on psychopathic traits were over-sampled. The sample was reassessed three times at yearly intervals. The self-report scores on the APSD showed moderate correlations with parent ratings of psychopathic traits, were moderately stable across 1–2 years, and showed significant correlations with measures of antisocial behavior both concurrently and predictively. One major weakness of the self-report ratings was the low internal consistency of the subscales, which were much lower than the internal consistency found on the parent report version of the scale.

This paper systematically examines intra-organizational consensus of perceptions of managerial reform in local government in the UK. The paper questions the role of ‘elite surveys’ in public sector evaluation research by exploring the extent to which multiple informants agree on the expected impacts of Best Value. Results from a survey of 978 local government officers in 80 local authorities indicate modest levels of consensus. These findings suggest that single respondent surveys are likely to produce unreliable data and misrepresent the impact of public sector policy reforms. Rather than rely on the perceptions of one respondent it is argued that multiple respondent surveys should be employed if rigorous and reliable data are to be used in providing evidence-based policy recommendations for reform in public sector organizations.

Research on social withdrawal has been impeded by problems in the definition of the construct and in its measurement. The purpose of this study was to develop a behaviourally-based peer-nomination measure useful in measuring two types of withdrawal: Inhibited/Wary and Self-Conscious/Anxious. In Study 1, we report the development of the measure. We examined whether this two-factor structure would be supported by data obtained from multiple informants. Data were collected from children in grades 3, 5, and 7, and their peers and teachers. Intercorrelations of peer-, teacher-, and self-reports of the Behaviour-Based Peer-Nomination Measures of social withdrawal supported the validity of the Inhibited/Wary dimension; teacher-peer agreement also provided support for the validity of the Self-Conscious/Anxious dimension. In Study2, the Behaviour-Based Peer-Nomination Measure of Social Withdrawal was cross-validated against observed play behaviour with 120 boys and girls. Results revealed some concordances between observational and peer-nomination data.

Two hundred and fifty-three mothers were surveyed regarding attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms in their preschool children (aged 2-6 years). Twenty-four children (9.5%) met DSM-IV criteria (criterion A only) for ADHD based solely on parent report. Mean ratings of the three core symptoms of ADHD (hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattentiveness) were in the mid-range on a 1-7 point scale, with mothers indicating their children were most likely to be impulsive. Positive parental endorsement of the 18 individual DSM-IV symptoms of ADHD ranged from 4% for 'loses things necessary for tasks', to 28.4% for 'is on the go or acts as if driven by a motor'. Males and children of less-educated parents were more likely to receive endorsement of ADHD symptoms. There were no differences with respect to age of the child or birth order (first vs later born). Global ratings of hyperactivity and inattentiveness predicted overall ratings of ADHD but when classification rates were examined, high global ratings were not predictive of diagnosis. These results lend support to the notion that relying solely on parents' verbal reports of isolated ADHD symptoms may lead to over-identification of the disorder. Thus, using full DSM-IV diagnostic criteria and including standardized behaviour rating scales across multiple informants and settings, is recommended.