Precision, reliability and accuracy in the dating of symptom onsets in child and adolescent psychopathology

The reported dates symptom onset in psychological disorders of children and adolescents are often unreliable and imprecise. A survey on the symptom reporting by parents and children reveals that the date of onset of a symptom is more likely to be imprecise if the period between recall and onset is more three months. Both parents and children are unreliable, with children showing more variability in their reporting of symptom onset than their parents. In addition, both tend to report onsets of disruptive behaviors less accurately than other symptoms.