Distorted self-perceptions: divergent self-reports as statistical outliers in the multimethod assessment of children's social-emotional adjustment

J Pers Assess. 1996 Feb;66(1):126-43. doi: 10.1207/s15327752jpa6601_10.

Abstract

The influence of statistical outliers among older children's self-reports was investigated in the context of a multitrait-multimethod validation of the Weinberger Adjustment Inventory (Weinberger, 1991). Self, teacher, and peer ratings in 6th-grade classrooms (N = 155) provided evidence of the convergent and discriminant validity of distress (i.e., anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and low well-being) and self-restraint (i.e., impulse control, suppression of aggression, consideration of others, and responsibility) as superordinate dimensions of adjustment. However, a few children were statistical outliers whose self-reports starkly contradicted others' perceptions. These nonrepresentative cases notably affected the validity coefficients for the entire sample and seemed to identify children with potentially clinically significant distortions in their self-perceptions.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Affective Symptoms / diagnosis*
  • Affective Symptoms / psychology
  • Anxiety / diagnosis
  • Anxiety / psychology
  • Child
  • Depression / diagnosis
  • Depression / psychology
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Observer Variation
  • Perceptual Distortion*
  • Personality Assessment / statistics & numerical data*
  • Personality Inventory / statistics & numerical data
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Self Concept*
  • Social Adjustment*
  • Sociometric Techniques