Parents' judgements about young children's problems: Why mothers and fathers might disagree yet still predict later outcomes

Correlates of parents' ratings of behavioural problems were explored in a s ample of 93 British families, in which mothers and fathers rated their chil dren at the time of the fourth birthday on the Achenbach Child Behavior Che cklist. As in other samples, there was moderate convergence in mothers' and fathers' total problem scores, but also signs that they were reporting dif ferent sorts of problems linked to different influences. The father's ratin g was primarily associated with the child's cognitive ability. The mother's rating was primarily affected by her own mental state and view of her marr iage. The father's but not the mother's rating provided unique information that predicted teachers' reports of the children's problems 7 years later. In general, parents' ratings of preschool children's problems reflect parti cular informants' perspectives on family life.