Can We Identify Parents Who Do Not Verbally Share Concerns for Their Children's Development?

Area of Science:

• Pediatric healthcare
• Developmental pediatrics
• Health communication

Background:

• Parental reporting of developmental concerns is crucial for early detection of developmental delays.
• However, some parents do not voice concerns during clinical encounters despite reporting them on questionnaires.
• Understanding factors influencing this communication gap is essential for improving child development surveillance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify characteristics of parents who do not voice developmental concerns to healthcare providers, even when concerns are noted on parent-completed questionnaires.
• To explore the relationship between sociodemographic variables and parents' willingness to share developmental concerns verbally.

Main Methods:

• A review of 376 medical records of children from a 9-month well-child visit was conducted.
• Sociodemographic variables including parental education, language, and family structure were analyzed.
• Logistic regression evaluated the association between these variables and parents voicing concerns after reporting them on the Parents' Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) questionnaire.

Main Results:

• Parents with less than a high school education were significantly more likely to not verbally share developmental concerns (3.238 times more likely, p = .035).
• Parental education level was the only sociodemographic variable approaching statistical significance (p = .056).
• While 63% of parents with less than a high school education did not voice concerns, only 35% of parents with at least a high school education did not.

Conclusions:

• Low educational attainment may be a barrier for parents in verbally sharing developmental concerns with healthcare providers.
• Healthcare providers should be aware of this potential disparity in communication.
• Utilizing written screening tools like the PEDS questionnaire may enhance the early detection of developmental delays in children whose parents have lower educational attainment.