Are discrepancies among child, mother, and father reports on children's behavior related to parents' psychological symptoms and aspects of parent-child relationships?

Examined whether parents' symptoms and qualitative and quantitative aspects of parent-child relationships make unique contributions to mothers' and fathers' reports of, and mother-child, father-child, and father-mother discrepancies on, children's behavior. Participants were 100 children, aged 10-12, and their mothers and fathers. Parents' symptoms and parent-child relationships made unique contributions to both parents' ratings of externalizing behavior. Although parent-child relationship variables were related to both parents' ratings of internalizing behavior, only parents' symptoms made unique contributions. On mother-child and father-child discrepancies, differences emerged between mother and father, and internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Both fathers' and mothers' symptoms contributed to father-mother discrepancies on both behavior types, with parent-child relationships contributing unique variance to discrepancies on internalizing behavior. Results highlight the importance of each informant's symptoms and relationship variables in understanding informant discrepancies.