Convergence of Self-Reports and Informant Reports on the Personality Assessment Screener

The present study is the first to investigate the Personality Assessment Screener, a brief self-report measure of risk for emotional and behavioral dysfunction, in relation to the informant report version of this instrument, the Personality Assessment Screener-Other. Among a sample of undergraduate roommate dyads (N = 174), self-report and informant report total scores on the Personality Assessment Screener/Personality Assessment Screener-Other moderately converged (r = 0.45), with generally greater agreement between perspectives observed for externalizing behaviors compared with internalizing distress. In addition, selves tended to report more psychological difficulties relative to informant ratings (d = 0.45) with an average absolute discrepancy between sources of 6.31 (SD = 4.96) out of a possible range of 66. Discrepancies between self-report and informant report were significantly associated with characteristics of the dyadic relationship (e.g., length of acquaintanceship) as well as the severity of self-reported psychological difficulties and positive impression management.