COMPARISONS OF PARENT AND ADOLESCENT PERSPECTIVES ON DEVIANCE

This study investigated hospitalized adolescents (57 girls; 46 boys; m ean age = 14 years, 8 months) and their fathers and mothers to ascerta in the degree of correspondence (by gender of parent and child) on rat ings of total symptoms and of internalizing and externalizing psychopa thology. Parents (especially mothers) reported higher levels of sympto m severity than their offspring; girls' ratings were more severe than boys'. Whereas interparent correspondence was essentially the same in ratings of daughters, mother-son convergence was generally higher than father-son correspondence. Boys and their parents did not differentia te internalizing from externalizing disorders; girls and parents were better able to discriminate between these types of psychopathology.