Externalizing (e.g., hyperactivity, inattention) and internalizing problems (e.g., anxiety) are two broad categories of behavior that – when present to an elevated degree –  lead to functional impairment and represent the cardinal symptoms of common disorders with begin in school age (Ahmad & Hinshaw, 2017). For example, in neurodevelopmental disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), neurodivergent participants have been found to face increased behavioral challenges compared to their neurotypical counterparts (e.g., risk-taking, disruptive behavior; Reinke et al., 2023). Groups of individuals who have been identified in research findings as accurate judges such as teachers or parents (Ferdinand et al., 2007) are commonly included in assessments of students’ behavior. Research suggests that assessments of various types of behavior problems through multiple informants can often provide crucial insights that help form a solid foundation for the development and evaluation of effective interventions in educational and clinical settings (De Los Reyes et al., 2015). Despite the advantages of including reports from several informants, disagreements to varying degrees between reports are frequently reported. However, previous studies rarely further investigated the lack of conformity between raters.

More recently, studies have indicated that discrepant perceptions, often referred to as biases, can reveal multifaceted information about how children's behavior is perceived and expressed in various contexts (Achenbach, 2020).  Rater biases, such as those related to children's competencies (i.e., positive illusory bias), gender, and special educational needs (SEN), should therefore be deemed as a crucial source of information in assessing behavior (Zurbriggen et al., 2023). Therefore, detected biases should be analyzed to understand, what variables can explain differences in informants’ ratings.

This symposium reveals a common denominator in the three contributions – all gathered information from multiple sources regarding emerging behavior problems of school-aged children. Going beyond rater agreements, each contribution addressed unique aspects and possible biases leading to discrepancies among informants. 

The first contribution of the symposium investigates the consistency between different perspectives (e.g. teachers, parents, students) on students' internalizing and externalizing problems. Students' gender and SEN status are analyzed as possible sources of biases. The second contribution investigates biases in teachers' perceptions regarding their students' behavior and provides a thorough examination of the ambiguity of the term “behavior problems“ as applied by teachers to students and the influences on labeling besides students’ actual behavior (i.e., teachers’ stereotypical beliefs, general sensitivity to disruption, work-related stress experiences). Finally, the third contribution focuses on the discrepancies in the assessments of self- and other-perceived (a) social skills and (b) behavior problems of children with ADHD and ASD compared to non-diagnosed children. Overall, the results presented at this symposium contribute to the expansion of knowledge in the field of perspective-dependent phenomena and biases in the assessment of children’s behavior.

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