The Relationship Between Parental Problem Recognition and Parent-Child Agreement on Child Mental Health Problems

Many children with mental health difficulties do not receive treatment. Parents are gatekeepers to their children’s access to treatment, and the first step towards seeking help is recognizing a problem exists. Many parents, however, have difficulty recognizing child mental health problems. Parents and children also show disagreement in their reporting of child emotional and behavioral symptoms. Parents’ inability to recognize child mental health problems may be a meaningful contributor to discrepancies in parent-child report, but this, to our knowledge, has not been empirically examined. Thus, this study aimed to understand the relationship between parents’ general ability to recognize child mental health problems and the discrepancy between parent and child report of mental health problems. A community sample of seven caregiver-child dyads participated in the current study. Caregivers reported on child emotional and behavioral symptoms, read through three vignettes depicting children with mental health problems, and answered vignette questions relating to mental health problem recognition. Children also reported on their emotional and behavioral symptoms. Percentages, bivariate correlations, and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between parents’ ability to recognize child mental health problems and parent-child report discrepancy. Although our sample was underpowered, results suggest preliminary findings consistent with previous studies. Our hypotheses, however, regarding the relationship between parents’ general ability to recognize child mental health problems and the discrepancy between parent and child report of mental health problems were not supported. Overall, study findings provide information describing patterns of parental problem recognition that should be cautiously interpreted.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Alabama Libraries

Year dc:date.issued

2022

Author dc:creator

• Revilla, Rebecca

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• White, Bradley A.

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cundiff, Jenny M
• Laird, Robert D

• Child Mental Health
• Parent-Child Agreement
• Problem Recognition

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved by the author unless otherwise indicated.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US, English

Dc Identifier Other

http://purl.lib.ua.edu/184308
u0015_0000001_0004357
Revilla_alatus_0004M_14793

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ir.ua.edu:123456789/8575