Validly characterizing youth mental health phenomena requires evidence-based approaches to assessment. An evidence-based assessment cannot rely on a "gold standard" instrument but rather, batteries of instruments. These batteries include multiple modalities of instrumentation (e.g., surveys, interviews, performance-based tasks, physiological readings, structured clinical observations). Among these instruments are those that require soliciting reports from multiple informants: People who provide psychometrically sound data about youth mental health (e.g., parents, teachers, youth themselves). The January 2011 issue of the Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology (JCCAP) included a Special Section devoted to the most common outcome of multi-informant assessments of youth mental health, namely discrepancies across informants' reports (i.e., informant discrepancies). The 2011 JCCAP Special Section revolved around a critical question: Might informant discrepancies contain data relevant to understanding youth mental health (i.e., domain-relevant information)? This Special Issue is a "sequel" to the 2011 Special Section. Since 2011, an accumulating body of work indicates that informant discrepancies often contain domain-relevant information. Ultimately, we designed this Special Issue to lay the conceptual, methodological, and empirical foundations of guidelines for integrating multi-informant data when informant discrepancies contain domain-relevant information. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we briefly review the last 12 years of research and theory on informant discrepancies. This review highlights limitations inherent to the most commonly used strategies for integrating multi-informant data in youth mental health. We also describe contributions to the Special Issue, including articles about informant discrepancies that traverse multiple content areas (e.g., autism, implementation science, measurement validation, suicide).

Experiential avoidance (EA) is a key component in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) theory and research. EA is associated with a wide range of psychopathology in adults including anxiety, in particular social anxiety, and depression, yet little research exists on EA in youth. Anxiety sensitivity (AS), like EA, has been viewed as a form of distress tolerance or emotion regulation. In a sample of 124 children (age 10 to 12), this study examined the independent and specific relations of EA and AS to children’s depression, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms, both before and after controlling for comorbid symptoms. EA and AS had independent associations with each of children’s depression, anxiety, and social anxiety; and EA had significantly stronger relations than AS with each of children’s social anxiety and anxiety. After controlling for depression, only EA (and not AS) was uniquely related to both children’s anxiety and social anxiety. After controlling for anxiety and social anxiety, only AS (and not EA) was uniquely related to depression. After controlling for depression and social anxiety, neither EA nor AS was significantly related to anxiety. In contrast, after controlling for depression and anxiety, EA (and not AS) showed a significant and unique relation to children’s social anxiety. These findings indicate: 1) there are distinctions between EA and AS; 2) EA and AS are overlapping yet independent correlates for each of depression, anxiety and social and anxiety; and 3) EA and AS show some differential relations with children’s depression, anxiety, and social anxiety when comorbid symptoms are considered. Theoretical and treatment implications are highlighted.

SYNOPSISObjective. This study advanced and tested conceptualizations of parents' depression and anxiety in relation to parental warmth, hostility/rejection/neglect, and behavioral control, before and after controlling for comorbid symptoms. Design. Two-parent families (N=119) with girls (aged 8 to 12) completed questionnaires on parents' and girls' depression and anxiety and parents' parenting. Results. Both parents' depression and anxiety were related to more hostility/rejection/neglect; and the relations with depression remained after controlling for anxiety, yet the relations with anxiety became non-significant after controlling for depression. Mothers' and fathers' depression remained significantly and uniquely related to more hostility/rejection/neglect after controlling for their anxiety in addition to parental warmth, family socioeconomic status, parents' treatment status, and girls' depression and anxiety symptoms. Both mothers' and fathers' anxiety were related to higher behavioral control, before and after controlling for the parent's depression, hostility/rejection/neglect, and treatment status, as well as family socioeconomic status and girls' depression and anxiety symptoms. Fathers' depression was related to lower behavioral control only after controlling for fathers' anxiety, and remained so after also controlling for fathers' hostility/rejection/neglect and the other control variables. Fathers' depression and anxiety also interacted in relation to behavioral control. Conclusions. Mothers' and fathers' depression and anxiety symptoms are differentially related to parental warmth, hostility/rejection/neglect, and behavioral control, especially when comorbid symptoms are considered.

Theories on children’s depression, anxiety, and social anxiety note aspects of parenting such as acceptance/rejection and behavioral control. Despite these theoretical relations and high rates of comorbidity among children’s internalizing symptoms, no studies have examined multiple aspects of parenting and children’s symptoms of depression, anxiety, and social anxiety simultaneously. We examined mother- and child-reported mothers’ parenting behaviors (acceptance/rejection and behavioral control) and their combined, independent, and specific relations with children’s depression, anxiety, and social anxiety symptoms in a community sample of 124 mother–child dyads (children 10–12 years old). Children’s report of maternal behavioral control was related to mothers’ report of children’s anxiety problems. Importantly, children’s report of mothers’ acceptance/rejection was an independent predictor of all three child-reported symptom types, and child- and/or mother-report of maternal acceptance/rejection was an independent predictor of mothers’ report of children’s anxiety and affective problems. After controlling for anxiety, social anxiety, and both together, children’s perceived maternal acceptance/rejection emerged as a specific and unique predictor of children’s depression symptoms. But, after controlling for depression, parenting behaviors were no longer related to children’s anxiety and social anxiety. Clinical and theoretical implications are discussed, as well as directions for future research.

Depression and social anxiety symptoms and disorders are highly comorbid, and are associated with low social acceptance and academic competence. Theoretical models of both depression and social anxiety highlight the saliency of negative self-perceptions. We examined whether children’s self-perceptions of social acceptance and mother-reported youth social acceptance are independently and uniquely related to children’s depression and social anxiety, both before and after controlling for comorbid symptoms. Similar questions were examined regarding academic competence. The sample was 110 clinic-referred youth aged 8–16 years (65 boys, 45 girls; M age = 11.15, SD = 2.57). In the social acceptance area, both youth self-perceptions and mother-perceptions had independent and unique relations to depression and social anxiety, before and after controlling for comorbid symptoms. In the academic domain, both youth self-perceptions and mother-perceptions had independent and unique relations to depression, before and after controlling for social anxiety; yet only youth self-perceptions were related to social anxiety, before, but not after controlling for depression. For depression, larger effect sizes were observed for children’s perceived, versus mother-reported, social acceptance and academic competence. Bootstrapping and Sobel tests found youth self-perceptions of social acceptance mediated the relation between mothers’ perceptions and each of youth depression and social anxiety; and perceived academic competence mediated the relation between mothers’ perceptions and youth depression, both before and after controlling for social anxiety. We found similarities and differences in findings for depression and social anxiety. Theoretical and treatment implications are highlighted, and future research directions are discussed.

Children’s friendship quality is a particularly important risk or protective factor for internalizing problems and loneliness. Past research indicates that relationship satisfaction is related to perceived similarity; however, it is unclear whether this relation is seen in girls’ friendship quality and whether this relation is significant over and above internalizing problems and loneliness.

Rumination and anxiety sensitivity are posited cognitive vulnerabilities in the development and/or maintenance of depression and anxiety and they have been examined separately in youth, and primarily in adolescents. Depression and anxiety are also highly comorbid. In 125 preadolescent girls (aged 9 to 12), we examined the independent, combined, and specific relations of rumination and anxiety sensitivity to girls’ depression and anxiety, both before and after controlling for comorbid symptoms. Results found both rumination and anxiety sensitivity were independently related to depressive symptoms; and, both rumination and anxiety sensitivity were independently related to anxiety symptoms. After controlling for anxiety, rumination, and not anxiety sensitivity, showed a unique and specific relation to depression. In contrast, after controlling for depression, anxiety sensitivity, and not rumination, showed a unique and specific relation to anxiety. Rumination and anxiety sensitivity did not interact in relation to girls’ depression or anxiety. These findings suggest: 1) there are distinctions between rumination and anxiety sensitivity; 2) rumination and anxiety sensitivity are overlapping yet independent vulnerabilities or correlates for both depression and anxiety; and 3) when comorbid symptoms are considered, rumination is uniquely and specifically related to depression and not anxiety, and anxiety sensitivity is uniquely and specifically related to anxiety and not depression. Our results add to recent advances in integrative cognitive vulnerability models, which highlight the importance of examining multiple cognitive vulnerabilities and examining the specificity of each to depression and anxiety.

Rumination and anxiety sensitivity are posited cognitive vulnerabilities in the development and/or maintenance of depression and anxiety and have only been examined separately in youth.