The Quebec Child Mental Health Survey (QCMHS) was conducted in
1992 on a
representative sample of 2400 children and adolescents aged 6 to 14 years
from throughout
Quebec. Prevalences of nine Axis-I DSM-III-R (American Psychiatric Association,
1987)
mental health disorders were calculated based on each informant (for 6–11-year-olds:
child,
parent, and teacher; for 12–14-year-olds: child and parent). Informant
parallelism allows the
classification of results of the demographic variables associated with
disorders in the logistic
regression models. This strategy applies to group variables (correlates
of disorders) whereas
informant agreement applies to individual diagnoses. Informant parallelism
implies that
results for two informants or more are in the same direction and significant.
In the QCMHS,
informant parallelism exists for disruptive disorders, i.e. in two ADHD
regression models
(child and parent) higher rates among boys and young children, and in three
oppositional/conduct disorders regression models (child, parent,
and teacher) higher rates among boys.
No informant parallelism is observed in the logistic regression models
for internalizing
disorders, i.e. the patterns of association of demographic variables with
anxiety and
depressive disorders vary across informants. Urban-rural residence does
not emerge as a
significant variable in any of the logistic regression models. The overall
6-month prevalences
reach 19.9% according to the parent and 15.8% according to the child. The
implications of
the results for policy makers and clinicians are discussed.