Professional Beliefs about Parents of Children with Mental and Emotional Disabilities: A Cross-Discipline Comparison

Abstract

The views of social workers, child psychiatrists, and psychologists about parents of children with mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders were compared in this study. The Providers’ Beliefs About Parents questionnaire was used to measure views about parents’ competence, parents’ pathology, parents’ credibility, parents’ role in the etiology of children's problems, information sharing with parents, giving explicit directives to parents about how to help their children, and related child mental health issues such as use of psychotropic medication with children and adolescents and perceived importance of research-based knowledge about child and adolescent psychopathology. Variables most associated with parent-friendly beliefs and attitudes were endorsement of a neuropsychological orientation and familiarity with parent support groups. Views of respondents did not differ by ethnicity, gender, or parental status. Child psychiatrists were most in agreement with parent-friendly attitudes and beliefs, clinical social workers were least in agreement, and psychologists were midway between the other two groups.