Studies tested the hypothesis that patterns in parents' perceptions of their children's behavior toward them will correlate significantly with patterns in parents' reports of their children's personality attributes and psychopathology. A low-income (LI) sample was drawn from participants in a longitudinal study of mother-child interaction and child development that began during mothers' pregnancy. Data were collected from 211 mothers interviewed three years after their children began kindergarten. Mean age of the sample was 29.9 years; mean educational level was 11.5 years; and mean annual income was 6,500 dollars. A parallel cross-sectional study conducted during children's kindergarten year included interviews with 200 mothers of singleton, low-birth-weight (LBW) children born during a 2-year period. Mothers' perceptions of their children were obtained with the Parent Report of Child Behavior toward the Parent Inventory's (CBTP) scales for instrumental independence, positive involvement, compliance/obedience, resisting/controlling behavior, and detachment/distance in interaction with the mother. Mothers' perceptions of their children's personalities and psychopathologies were obtained with the Child Adaptive Behavior Inventory's scales for competence, altruism, antisocial/hostile behavior, hyperactivity, somatic complaints, and depression for the LBW sample, with added scales for apathy and asocial behavior for the LI sample. Results are discussed. The short form of the CBTP is appended. (Author/RH)