Mother-child agreement on behavioral ratings in Tourette syndrome: a controlled study

In Tourette syndrome, motor and phonic tics are associated with a spectrum of psychiatric disorders. As proxy report instruments are commonly used to assess children with Tourette syndrome, we investigated the relationship between child and mother ratings of behavioral problems. We enrolled 28 children with Tourette syndrome (25 males; mean age, 13.9 years) and 61 gender- and age-matched healthy controls (55 males; mean age, 14.7 years). Clinicians completed measures of tic severity, and all children completed the Youth Self-Report version of the Child Behavior Checklist, while their mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist. In the clinical group, Youth Self-Report scores were significantly lower than mothers' Child Behavior Checklist scores across the majority of subscales (especially affect and somatization). In contrast, for the control group, mother and child ratings only differed for the externalizing behavior subscales. Clinicians should be aware of these differences between self and mother ratings for specific behavioral problems in Tourette syndrome.