A guidance to proxy-reports in studies of children

What is it about?

When studying children, researchers are often limited becuase children may be unable to disclose the information desired - e.g. due to limited understanding of the queried items or limitations in expressing their perception or views. In pediatric epidemiological research, it is thus customary to obtain proxy-reports rather than self-reports, most often from parents or explicitly from the mother. This book chapter describes which aspects of reporting should be considered and why and when it may be a good idea to think about the way data was ascertained.

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Why is it important?

Because it is such a common problem in studying children, we tend to forget how important the way of data assessment is. Parental proxy-report is undoubtedly the most common solution but it may not always be the best and there may be other feasible options. At least, researchers should scrutinize their questionnaires or interview standards for parts that may be interpreted by e.g. parents other than intended to optimize interpretation of resulting data.

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