Mother, Father, and Teacher Agreement on Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder Symptoms in Children with Psychiatric Disorders

Objective: Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD) was established as a new DSM-5 disorder despite little published research, and there are no studies investigating agreement between informants on the presence of DMDD symptoms. Methods: Mothers, fathers, and teachers rated DMDD symptoms (irritable-angry mood and temper outbursts) in 768 children with psychiatric disorders ages 6-16.

Results: Mother and father ratings were similar, but parent-teacher agreement was poor. Mothers and fathers identified a substantially higher percentage of children with DMDD symptoms (30% and 25%) than did teachers (12%).

Conclusion: Our findings are consistent with previous studies demonstrating that parents perceive more externalizing and internalizing symptoms in their children than do teachers. This has implications for interpreting mother, father, and teacher report, which is particularly important for disorders like DMDD that have DSM-5 cross-setting diagnostic requirements. Given our findings, it seems prudent to obtain ratings from both parents and teachers and recognize that parents are likely to report greater DMDD symptoms than teachers.