(PS10-C61) Assessment of Mental Health Problems in Young Adulthood: Should Parents Still Be Involved?

Introduction: Parents are routinely included in the assessment of mental health problems in children and adolescents. In most cases this changes as soon as a child reaches the age of majority, even though the parent-child relationship is still of central importance in young adulthood and the validity of the parent-report does not suddenly dry up. In childhood, differences between self-reported and parent-reported mental health problems are known to be related to, e.g., the type of mental health problems, parents’ own mental health problems, and the quality of the parent-child relationship. Extensive studies of the parent-report in young adulthood are still lacking. Within the current study, we investigated whether and under which condition parents should be involved in the assessment of mental health problems in young adults.

Method: Within the longitudinal "Future Family" study, approximately 264 parent-child dyads with children in young adulthood (M = 22 years) were examined at the 18-years catamnesis. For the dimensional assessment of child mental health problems parents filled out the Adult Behavior Checklist (ABCL) and the children the Adult Self Report (ASR). Regarding their own psychopathology, parents provided the depression (PHQ-9) and anxiety (GAD-7) module of the Patient Health Questionnaire. Mental health problems in both, children and parents, were furthermore assessed by using a structured clinical interview (DIPS-OA). In addition, individual ratings on the quality of the parent-child relationship and the frequency of contact were inquired.  

Results: Correlations between (1) parent- and self-reported mental health problems of the young adults, (2) different types of mental health problems, (3) the quality of the parent-child relationship, and (4) parental psychological problems are presented. The parent- and self-report are furthermore compared to the categorical DSM-V-diagnoses of the child in the DIPS-OA. In addition, results on the stability of the agreement between parent- and self-reported child mental health problems from adolescence to young adulthood are presented.

Discussion: The results provide important insights into the agreement between parent- and self-reported child mental health problems in young adulthood, related factors, and the stability over time. The study thus offers first indications to decide whether parents should be included in the assessment of mental health problems in young adults in therapy as well as in research.