The Role of Parenting Stress in Discrepancies Between Parent and Teacher Ratings of Behavior Problems in Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

The study assessed whether teacher and parent ratings of child behavior problems were similar for children with autism spectrum disorders. Two informants rated child behaviors in the same home environment, and the degree to which parenting stress impacted the similarity of the ratings was assessed. Overall behavior problem ratings did not differ between groups, but there was poor correspondence between the ratings for individual children, stress did not impact markedly on the discrepancies. Parent-teacher discrepancies in behavior ratings cannot be attributed entirely to differences in the assessment-environment, and there was little evidence of widespread impacts of parenting stress on these discrepant ratings. It was suggested that attention is needed in terms of the teacher characteristics when explaining such results.