Inter-parent agreement on higher and lower level traits in two countries: effects of parent and child gender

This study investigated the effects of parent and child gender on inter-parent agreement on higher and lower level traits in samples of Flemish and Swiss children. One-hundred and forty-four Flemish and 205 Swiss parent pairs provided independent ratings of one of their children aged between 5.6 and 14.4 years using the Hierarchical Personality Inventory for Children (HiPIC; Mervielde, I., & De Fruyt, F., 1999). The results showed that parents considerably agree with each other on both the higher and the lower order traits. There were no absolute intra-pair differences per child gender and country, suggesting that agreement between parents was not affected by child gender and was similar across the two countries. Mean-level domain and facet differences were observed for boys and girls and country, but not between fathers and mothers. It is concluded that, for research and applied purposes, fathers and mothers are comparable informants of childhood behaviour.