Diana Harrington School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine May 13, 2006

1. Exploring Disagreement: Children’s & Mothers’ Reports of Children’s Moods Diana Harrington School of Social Ecology University of California, Irvine May 13, 2006 UROP Symposium

2. Children’s Moods • Can children become depressed? • Why do we care if they do? • Late Childhood and Early Adolescence (Larson et al. 2002)

3. Who can tell us about children’s emotional states? Their parents The kids Do they say the same thing?

4. (Cole, 2000,2002; Muris, 2003) Other Existing Information • Differences between parents’ and children’s reports • (Ferro, 1994; Fincham, 1998; Sorensen, 2005; • Hankin 1998) • Children's Expression and Experience of Depressive Symptoms • (Cole, 2002; Roza, 2003; Hankin, 1998) They do not.

5. What We Do Not Know • Are there Age Differences in extent of (Dis)Agreement between Parents’ and Children’s Report? • Are there Gender Differences in extent of (Dis)Agreement between Parents’ and Children’s Report?

6. Hypotheses • Correlations Between Mothers’ and Children’s Reports will be Positive but modest. 2. Older children’s reports will be more highly associated with mothers’ reports than will younger children’s reports. 3. Girls’ reports will be more highly associated with mothers’ reports than will boys’ reports.

7. The Data: Palmtop Partners Dr. Carol Whalen • Parent-child interactions and moods throughout the day • Electronic Diary data • Mothers AND children’s responses • Control group

8. The Participants • Mother and child volunteers for a study involving 7 consecutive days of frequent electronic monitoring using PDAs • Children ages 8-12.9; mothers ages 30–51.6 • 40 children 8 to 10.5 years of age; • 38 children 10.5 to 12.9 years • 44 boys and 34 girls

9. Data Analysis • Correlational analysis of children’s reports with mothers’ reports of child’s moods • “Bored” • “Stress” • “Worried” • “Angry” • “Felt good about self” • “Good mood” • “Sad”

10. Results: Do the data support the hypotheses?

11. Correlations Between Mothers’ and Children’s Reportswill be positive but modest. • Highest correlation for any age or gender group on any mood r = 0.604** • But some were really low Negative moods • They were all positive correlations

12. * significance at p < 0.05 ** significance at p < 0.01 2.Older children’s reports will be more highly associated with mothers’ reportsthan will younger children’s reports. • Yes– For 6 of 7 moods  Especially  Exception

13. * significance at p < 0.05 ** significance at p < 0.01 3.Girls’ reports will bemore highly associatedwith mothers’ reports than will boys’ reports. • Yes– For 5 of 7 moods  Especially  Exception  Exception

14. Discussion: What does this all mean?

15. Parents’ and children’s reports are NOT interchangeable.

16. Speculations • Why are correlations so low for the negative moods? “Sad,” “worried”  “Bored” “Worried” & “Stress” confusion

17. Limitations • Self Selection: Families that participate Range of moods • Definitions of moods “Stress”

18. Future Research • Larger sample size • What happens if the parent is a father? • Different Cultures & SES • Wider age range of children

19. Aknowledgments: Dr. Carol Whalen Natasha Emmerson Dr. Sharon Ishikawa Dr. Valerie Jenness UROP

20. References   Cole, David A., et al. (2000). Structural differences in parent and child reports of children’s symptoms of depression and anxiety. Psychological Assessment. 17, 174-185  Cole, David A., et al. (2002). Individual differences in the emergence of depressive symptoms in children and adolescents: a longitudinal investigation of parent and child reports. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 111, 156-165  Ferro, Tova, et al. (1994). Depressive disorders: distinctions in children. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 33, 664-670 Fincham, Frank D., et. al. (1998). Children’s attributions in the family: The children’s relationship attribution measure. Journal of Family Psychology. 12, 481-493  Hankin, Benjamin L., et al. (1998). Development of depression from preadolescence to young adulthood: emerging gender differences in a 10-year longitudinal study. Journal of Abnormal Psychology. 107, 128-140  Larson, R., & Richards, M. H. (1994) Divergent Realities: The emotional lives of mothers, fathers, and adolescents. New York: Basic Books.  Larson, R. W., et al. (2002). Continuity, stability, and change in daily emotional experiences across adolescence. Child Development. 73, 1151-1165  Muris, Peter, Meesters, Cor, & Spinder, Miranda (2003). Relationships between child- and parent-reported behavioural inhibition and symptoms of anxiety and depression in normal adolescents. Personality and Individual Differences. 34, 759-771  Roza, Sabine J., et. al. (2003). Stable prediction of mood and anxiety disorders based on behavioral and emotional problems in childhood: a 14-year follow-up during childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. American Journal of Psychiatry. 160, 2116-2121  Sørensen, Merete Juul, et al. (2004) Age and gender differences in depressive symptomology and comorbidity: an incident sample of psychiatrically admitted children. Journal of Affective Disorders. 84, 85-91  Steinberg, Lawrence (2002). Adolescence. New York: McGraw-Hill.

21. -Thank you- Any Questions? Diana Harrington harringd@uci.edu