Demographic characteristics which moderate the extent to which parent ratings of child behavior problems discriminate inner-city children referred by teachers for adjustment problems from controls were studied. Demographic characteristics of interest were family source of income (welfare vs. nonwelfare), mother's educational level (ninth grade and above vs. below ninth grade), sex (male vs. female), and ethnicity (black vs. Chicano). The referred and control groups were subdivided by demographic characteristics and the effect of each on parent ratings were assessed using a series of two (referral) X two (demographic characteristic) analyses of variance. Interaction effects indicated that source of income and mother's educational level moderate the discrimination of referred versus control children on the parent rating scales. Parents reported more behavior problems for referred than control children for the nonwelfare and higher mother's education subsamples but not for the welfare or lower mother's education samples. No referral X demographic interactions were obtained for the sex or ethnicity variables. Implications of the findings for the design of school-based secondary prevention programs are discussed.