Cumulative childhood trauma predicts mental health problems in children, mediated by emotion regulation (ER). To assess trauma history and mental health in children, different informants may be addressed, assessing data from different perspectives. Despite differences between child- and caregiver-reports as robust finding in child psychology, it remains unclear to which extent perspective matters when examining these variables and related associations.
The current study was set to (1) examine whether ER mediates the relationship between cumulative childhood trauma and mental health problems in children, (2) test whether results differ with examined perspective, and (3) investigate if meaningful patterns of child-caregiver-reported discrepancies can be identified.
Data were collected from 145 children living in foster care by child- and caregiver-reports using standardized measures to assess trauma history (CTQ), ER (FEEL-KJ), and mental health problems (CBCL). Mediation and latent profile analysis were calculated.
Mediation analysis identified ER as mediator for internalizing and externalizing mental health problems. Using data from different perspectives, mediation models differed considerably regarding significance, direction, and magnitude of effects. Using latent profile analysis, meaningful patterns of child-caregiver-reported discrepancies were identified and associated with children\'s sociodemographic and psychopathological characteristics.
Adaptive and maladaptive ER distinctively mediate the relationship between cumulative childhood trauma and mental health problems in children. Perspective matters when examining these variables and child- and caregiver-reports are not interchangeable. Practitioners and researchers should be aware of inherent limitations when using data from distinct perspectives. Informant discrepancies can carry meaning and should not be ignored, but examined and interpreted instead.

Parents and adolescents often have discrepant views of parenting which pose challenges for researchers regarding how to deal with information from multiple informants. Although recent studies indicate that parent-adolescent discrepancies in reports of parenting can be useful in predicting adolescent outcomes, their findings are mixed regarding whether discrepancies relate to more positive or more negative adolescent outcomes. This study examined the longitudinal implications of parent-adolescent discrepancies in reports of parenting (warmth, monitoring, and reasoning) on adolescent behavioral, psychological, academic, and physical health outcomes among Mexican immigrant families in the United States. Participants were 604 adolescents (54% female, M age.wave1 = 12.41 years) and their parents. Taking a person-centered approach, this study identified distinct patterns of parent-adolescent discrepancies in parenting and their different associations with later adolescent outcomes. Adolescents\' more negative perceptions of parenting relative to parents were associated with more negative adolescent outcomes, whereas adolescents\' more positive perceptions relative to parents related to more positive adolescent outcomes. There were also variations in discrepancy patterns and their associations with adolescent outcomes between mother-adolescent vs. father-adolescent dyads. Findings of the current study highlight individual variations of discrepancies among parent-adolescent dyads and the importance of considering both the magnitude and direction of discrepancies regarding their associations with adolescent well-being.

The purpose of the study was to identify groups of adolescents based on their reported use of different coping strategies and compare levels of depression and anxiety symptoms across the groups. Tenth and eleventh grade public school students (N=982; 51% girls; 66% Caucasian; M age=16.04, SD=0.73) completed a battery of self-report measures that assessed their use of different coping strategies, depressive symptoms, and anxiety symptoms. Latent profile analysis (LPA) classified the participants into four distinct groups based on their responses on subscales of the COPE inventory (Carver et al., 1989). Groups differed in amount of coping with participants in each group showing relative preference for engaging in certain strategies over others. Disengaged copers reported the lowest amounts of coping with a preference for avoidance strategies. Independent copers reported moderate levels of coping with relatively less use of support-seeking. Social support-seeking copers and active copers reported the highest levels of coping with a particular preference for support-seeking strategies. The independent copers reported the lowest levels of depressive symptoms compared to the three other groups. The Social Support Seeking and Active Coping Groups reported the highest levels of anxiety. Although distinct coping profiles were observed, findings showed that adolescents between the ages of 14 and 16 engage in multiple coping strategies and are more likely to vary in their amount of coping than in their use of specific strategies.