TEACHERS RATINGS OF INPATIENT CHILDRENS DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND AGGRESSION - A PRELIMINARY COMPARISON BETWEEN INPATIENT-FACILITY AND COMMUNITY-BASED TEACHERS RATINGS AND THEIR CORRESPONDENCE WITH CHILDRENS SELF-REPORTS

Explored inpatient-facility and community-based teachers' ratings of depression, anxiety, and aggression by examining the convergence and divergence between them and the correspondence of each with child self-report Subjects were eighty-three 8- 12-year-old children in an inpatient psychiatric facility. Depression, anxiety, and aggression were assessed through self-, community-based-teacher-, and inpatient-facility-teacher report on parallel rating scales. Convergent and discriminant validity were significant among the three informants' measures. Significant correspondence emerged between the two teachers on ratings of depression and aggression, but not on ratings of anxiety. The two sets of teachers showed significant correspondence on many depression symptom items in addition to school-related behaviors. Both types of teachers demonstrated poor convergence with child self-report. These preliminary findings suggest that inpatient-facility teachers may be potentially useful informants in assessment of child psychopathology and encourage the further use and exploration of the utility of teacher ratings in general.