Parent adherence to psychologist recommendations: The role of expressed emotion about child and reaction to diagnosis

PARENT ADHERENCE TO PSYCHOLOGIST RECOMMENDATIONS:THE ROLE OF EXPRESSED EMOTION ABOUT CHILD AND REACTION TODIAGNOSISby LESLEY HETTERSCHEIDTAugust 2011Advisor: Dr. Douglas BarnettMajor: Psychology (Clinical)Degree: Doctor of Philosophy For the majority of children with significant behavioral or academic problems atschool, the first course of action is to participate in a psychological evaluation. Uponcompletion of the evaluation parents receive an integrative report containing numerousrecommendations for how to improve the well-being of their child. Fifty-one child clientswho were referred and completed a comprehensive assessment for behavioral oracademic problems were recruited for this study. A year or more after the evaluationswere completed, parents of the children were asked about each written report recommendation, whether or not it was followed, and reasons for non-adherence. Expressed Emotion and reaction to diagnosis were also coded for each parent.Overall it seems that children either improve, or at the very least do not get worse following a psychological assessment. Additionally, the present study found that childrenwith higher IQs improve more than those with lower IQ. Findings indicate parents arerelatively adherent to report recommendations, but adherence is not linked to Expressed