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Clinical assessments and maternal judgments: concurrent and predictive relationships
Helen Reinherz1, Deborah Klein Walker2, Alan L Gordon1
1Simmons College School of Social Work.
The American Journal of Orthopsychiatry
|April 1, 1984
Summary
Mothers and clinicians often disagree on children's adjustment. However, social worker assessments of mothers before kindergarten predicted children's later school and behavioral success.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Developmental Psychology
- Clinical Psychology
Background:
- Discrepancies exist between mothers' and clinicians' assessments of child adjustment.
- These differing perspectives can impact access to essential mental health services for children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the predictive validity of social worker assessments of mothers' perceptions of child adjustment.
- To examine the relationship between early social worker ratings and later child adjustment outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Utilized structured interviews with mothers before kindergarten entry.
- Employed social workers to conduct these initial assessments.
- Tracked children's school and behavioral adjustment measures over a four-year period.
Main Results:
- Confirmed the common finding of differing adjustment ratings between mothers and clinicians.
- Identified significant correlations between social worker assessments and later child adjustment.
- Early social worker evaluations demonstrated predictive power for long-term outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Social worker assessments, based on structured interviews with mothers, offer valuable predictive insights into children's future adjustment.
- These early evaluations can potentially inform timely interventions and support for children's mental health and educational trajectories.