Do developmental assessments impact parental stress?

• Main Author: Campos, Ivy
• Format: Others
• Published: FIU Digital Commons 2005
• Subjects: Psychology
• Online Access: http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/1989; http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3197&context=etd

This study is a preliminary exploration of whether parental stress can be influenced by receiving the developmental assessment information about a target child. The study consisted of 25 self-referred families who sought developmental assessments from the Youth and Family Development Program (YFDP) at Florida International University, with children between 4 to 12 years of age. All parents contacting YFDP for developmental assessments completed a pre-test (Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF) over the telephone. Participants (both parent and child) completed an assessment battery during Weeks 1 and 2, and a final feedback session (Week 4) was provided for the parent on the results of these assessments. The participants were contacted four weeks (Week 8) after the feedback session to complete the post test (PSISF). Results of the pre and post-test were compared. As expected, parents' stress was significantly lower at one month following the developmental assessment intervention compared to stress at intake, across domains of parent distress, difficult child, parentchild dysfunction, and total parenting distress. Implications for using developmental assessments in parent interventions are discussed.