Parent-child agreement in reporting somatic distress, gastrointestinal symptoms, mental health, and general health in girls with functional abdominal pain.

UNLABELLED: To examine the inter-rater agreement between parent- and child-reported measures of somatic distress, gastrointestinal symptoms, mental health, and general health in girls aged 9-13 years with functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs). This secondary analysis used data from the Just in TIME randomized controlled trial, including girls aged 9-13 years with FAPDs. Both girls and their parents completed the Children's Somatic Symptoms Inventory (gastrointestinal distress (CSSI-GI) and somatic distress (CSSI-nonGI) subscales) and answered questions about general health and mental health symptoms, measures at baseline and after 8 months. Agreement was assessed using intra-class correlation (ICC) and linear-weighted Cohen's kappa. Data from 121 girls (mean age 10.6 years) and their parents were analysed. For CSSI-GI, mean scores were similar at baseline (girls 6.98, parents 7.27; ICC 0.84, p < .001) and follow-up (girls 4.25, parents 4.16; ICC 0.91, p < .001). For CSSI-nonGI, girls reported higher mean scores than parents at baseline (8.75 vs. 6.79; ICC 0.75, p < .001) and follow-up (7.14 vs. 5.43; ICC 0.78, p < .001). Agreement for general health was fair (kappa 0.31 at baseline, 0.41 at follow-up, both p < .001). For mental health symptoms, agreement ranged from slight to moderate (kappa 0.20-0.52 at baseline; 0.11-0.46 at follow-up, all significant).

CONCLUSION

Findings indicated good parent- and child agreement for gastrointestinal and general somatic symptoms, but lower agreement for mental health and general health.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov, ID: NCT02920268, Name: Just in TIME-Intervention with Dance and Yoga for Girls with Recurrent Abdominal Pain, registered 29 September 2016.

WHAT IS KNOWN: • Parent reports are commonly used in paediatric assessment, but it is recommended that children's perspectives should be integrated in clinical practice and research. • Discrepancies between child and parent reports are frequent and may influence assessment accuracy and treatment planning.

WHAT IS NEW: • Parent-child agreement was higher for observable somatic symptoms, particularly gastrointestinal complaints, but lower for subjective experiences such as emotional states and perceived well-being. • Agreement for some items was higher at follow-up, suggesting potential gains in parental awareness or child-parent communication over time.