Validity and reliability of the Parent Satisfaction Questionnaire

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Healthcare Management
• Service Quality Assessment

Background:

• Child and adolescent psychology services require robust methods for evaluating patient experiences.
• Assessing consumer satisfaction is crucial for identifying areas of service shortfall and implementing targeted improvements.
• Existing satisfaction measures may not adequately capture the nuances of specialized mental health services.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a postal consumer satisfaction questionnaire specifically for a child and adolescent psychology service.
• To assess the reliability, utility, and validity (content, construct, concurrent) of the newly developed questionnaire.
• To determine the questionnaire's effectiveness in identifying service shortfalls and informing service development.

Main Methods:

• Development of a postal questionnaire for consumer satisfaction.
• Preliminary analysis of content, construct, and concurrent validity.
• Factor analysis to identify underlying dimensions of satisfaction.
• Assessment of questionnaire reliability and utility.

Main Results:

• The questionnaire demonstrated an acceptable degree of validity.
• Factor analysis revealed five factors, with three interpretable as related to contact outcomes, appointments, and timing.
• The questionnaire exhibited good reliability and utility, proving useful for identifying service gaps.
• The tool effectively directed service change initiatives.

Conclusions:

• The developed postal questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for assessing consumer satisfaction in child and adolescent psychology services.
• The questionnaire serves as a practical method for identifying service shortfalls and guiding service improvement.
• Methodological evaluation of consumer satisfaction questionnaires is essential for their routine use in quality monitoring and assurance.