Informant similarities, twin studies, and the assessment of externalizing behavior: A meta-analysis

Publication date: Available online 6 October 2017 Source:Journal of School Psychology Author(s): Elizabeth Talbott, George Karabatsos, Jaime L. Zurheide The purpose of this study was to examine similarity within informant ratings of the externalizing behavior of monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs. To do this, we conducted a meta-analysis of correlations within ratings completed by mothers, fathers, teachers, and youth. We retrieved n =204 correlations for MZ twins and n =267 correlations for DZ twins from n =54 studies containing n =55 samples. Results indicated that all four informants were significant negative predictors of within-informant correlations in their ratings of MZ, but not DZ twins. In the case of longitudinal studies and as the age of MZ twins increased, similarity within ratings by mothers was significantly greater than similarity within ratings by fathers. Among participant characteristics, we found that (a) age was a significant negative predictor of similarity within ratings for MZ twins; (b) race was a significant predictor of similarity within ratings for both MZ and DZ twins, but in the opposite direction; and (c) DZ opposite sex twins were a significant negative predictor of within-rating similarity. Among study characteristics for MZ twins, participant group and longitudinal study were significant negative predictors of within-rating similarity, and for both MZ and DZ twin pairs, non-independence in the data was a significant negative ...

Source: Journal of School Psychology - October 7, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research