Italian international adoptees at home and at school: A multi-informant assessment of behavioural problems

The aim of this study was to compare the reports of emotional and behavioural problems of adopted children on the part of mothers, fathers and teachers, and to examine the agreement in the reports among the three informants. The approach employed was multi-informant, with a three-point sample composed of 75 Italian couples (all parents of international adoptees between 7 and 11 years of age) and one of the child s teachers. Parents reported higher levels of problems in their adopted children than teachers did. Moreover, the agreement between mother and father was higher than that between one parent and the teacher. The percentage of cases in which all three informants agreed on the classification of the child as being part of the clinical group turned out to be considerably lower than when only one informant was concerned.