NCJ Number
216048
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 45 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2006 Pages: 1232-1242
Date Published
October 2006
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This study examined parents' help-seeking for the emotional or behavioral problems of children with borderline to moderate intellectual disabilities (IDs).
Abstract
Of the 213 parents (40.8 percent of the total sample) who had concluded that their children had emotional and behavioral problems, 70.6 percent felt their children needed professional help; 55.2 percent actually sought such help. Parents were more likely to seek professional help when their child had anxiety and depression, experienced negative life events, and when parents perceived child psychopathology before the past year. Barriers to seeking professional help were related primarily to parents' assessment of the severity of the problems and the parents' desire to solve the problems themselves without outside help. For approximately 70 percent of the children whose parents indicated that the children's behavioral and emotional functioning was "neither good nor bad," standardized measures identified the presence of problems. Given that a significant percentage of parents did not accurately perceive the severity of their children's emotional and behavioral problems or were reluctant to seek needed professional help, those professionals who work with ID children should inform all parents about symptoms of emotional and behavioral problems and the treatment options available. The study involved parents of 522 youths (ages 10- to 18-years-old) involved in a special education program in 2003. Parents were interviewed about their perception of their child's problems, their subsequent perception of their child's need for professional help, actual help-seeking, and the factors related to parents' help-seeking decision. 5 tables and 41 references