[Behavioral problems of somatic chronically ill adolescents: parent-child-agreement and differences]

Adolescents with a chronic somatic disease often show comorbid mental health problems which interfere with adherence and disease management. As adolescents often pass their rehabilitation treatment without their parents and therapists frequently lack resources necessary for assessing information from both the patients and their parents, the question arises what conclusions can be drawn on the basis of self report data only and how general agreement between parent and adolescents can be rated.

Parent-child-agreement of chronically ill adolescents and their families are analyzed using intra-class-correlation (ICC). Data of 367 adolescents with obesity, chronic respiratory disease, skin disease and diabetes between the age of 12.0 and 16.11 years were collected at the beginning of rehabilitation treatment. Parents received their questionnaire via post. Psychological symptoms were identified using the German version of the Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ-Deu).

There was medium to high agreement between parent and child ratings regarding "emotional problems", "peer relationship problems" and "total difficulty score" for all diagnoses.

Therapists of chronically ill adolescents can act on the assumption that parent-child-agreement is medium to high. Consequently, self-ratings appear a useful diagnostic indicator for rehabilitation treatment.