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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Parents' concerns about children are highly prevalent but often not confirmed by child doctors and nurses
Sijmen A Reijneveld1, Gea de Meer, Carin H Wiefferink
1University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Department of Health Sciences/SHARE, PO Box 196, 9700 AD Groningen, The Netherlands. s.a.reijneveld@med.umcg.nl
Insights
Nearly half of parents express concerns about their child's development, with frequent worries often related to behavior. However, professional agreement on these parental concerns is notably low.
Area of Science:
- Child development
- Pediatric health
- Parental concerns
Background:
- Assessing parental concerns about child development in the general population is crucial.
- Identifying at-risk groups for developmental issues is a key public health objective.
- Understanding the link between parental concerns and professional judgment is vital for effective care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of parental concerns regarding child development.
- To identify demographic and socioeconomic factors associated with parental concerns.
- To examine the concordance between parental concerns and professional assessments.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study of a nationally representative Dutch sample of children aged 14 months to 12 years.
- Data collected via questionnaires on parental concerns and professional assessments during routine well-child visits.
- Utilized validated instruments like the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment and Child Behavior Checklist for psychosocial problems.
Main Results:
- 49.3% of parents reported concerns, with 8.7% reporting frequent concerns, primarily about child behavior.
- Frequent concerns were more common in younger children, children from labor immigrant families, and low-income families.
- Parent-reported concerns significantly exceeded professionally assessed problems, with higher psychosocial issue rates when concerns were shared or unconfirmed by professionals.
Conclusions:
- A substantial proportion of parents voice concerns about their child's development.
- There is a significant discrepancy between parental concerns and professional evaluations in pediatric care.
- Low agreement highlights a potential gap in communication and assessment between parents and healthcare providers.
Background:
The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence in the general population of parents' concerns about the development of their child, to identify groups at risk and to assess the association between parents' concerns and professional judgement.
Methods:
We obtained cross-sectional data on a Dutch nationally representative sample of children aged 14 months, 3 3/4, 5-6 and 8-12 years within the setting of routine well-child visits provided to the entire population. A total of 4,107 participated (response rate 85.3%). Data were about concerns that parents reported by questionnaire before the visit regarding behavioural and emotional problems, developmental delay, consequences of disease and contact with peers that needed professional assistance, and about the assessment of these domains by doctors and nurses during the visit. Moreover, we obtained data on parent-reported psychosocial problems using the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Assessment and the Child Behavior Checklist.
Results:
Of all parents, 49.3% reported some concerns and 8.7% reported frequent concerns, most frequently on child behaviour. Frequent concerns were most likely to refer to young children, children from labour immigrant families, with fathers of medium educational level and in low-income families. The prevalence rates of professional-assessed parenting problems were much lower than parent-reported ones. The rates of psychosocial problems were highest in the case of shared concerns, but also higher if parents expressed concerns that were not confirmed by professionals.
Conclusion:
A very large proportion of parents of young children have concerns regarding their child, but agreement on these concerns with child health professionals is relatively low.
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