Others' reports of youth distress (e.g., parent, aggregated peer reports) typically evidence small to moderate agreement with youth self-reports, which may negatively impact identification of youth in distress. The proposed research examines the utility of obtaining assessment information from children's and adolescents' friends. Using a community sample of 4th and 11th grade participants, areas of congruence and discrepancy between parent-, peer-, and reciprocal friend-reports of youths' distress, in relation to youth self-reports, will be assessed via broad and narrow band measures of internalizing and externalizing distress. Friend reports are hypothesized to be related more strongly to self-reported distress among adolescents than children; the opposite pattern of results is expected with parent reports. The degree to which relations between reports are moderated by gender, symptom domain, relationship qualities, and perceived social support sought from different relationship partners will also be examined. Findings are expected to further clarify the roles of relationship partners as sources of support and to inform preventative interventions targeting the identification of at-risk youth.
