Longitudinal Changes in Preschoolers' Self-reported Psychological and Social Problems: Feasibility, Reliability, and Cross-informant Agreement

For decades, parental report was used to assess children's psychological symptoms and social problems. The Berkeley Puppet Interview (BPI) utilizes hand puppets to collect questionnaire-style data from children, allowing consideration of children's own perspective. The current longitudinal study compared the feasibility and reliability of preschoolers' self-report with BPI at age 4 (M = 4.03, SD =0.16; 52% boy, 82% White American) and 5 (M = 5.22, SD = 0.36; 51% boy, 85% White American) as well as cross-informant agreement among children, mothers (74% above college education), alternate caregivers (>90% biological fathers), and coders. Children completed symptomatology, social, and parenting scales of BPI and their parents completed surveys assessing similar constructs. Our findings revealed both similarities and changes across ages. Specifically, the reliability and cross-informant agreement of the broad symptomatology and parenting scales were promising at both timepoints; however, 4-year-olds showed lower internal consistency in social scales.