Diagnostic of Parent-Child-Interaction andTheir Relationship: Results from a Multiprofessional and Task Specific Survey

Abstract

The assessment of parent-child interactions and relationships (PCIR) plays an important role for many diagnostic purposes in child and adolescent psychology and psychological health care. While child and adolescent psychology has been intensively researched, the field still faces a lack of knowledge about health care practice. To offer knowledge about practical routine needs and derived needs in these domains, we aimed to obtain information from professionals who routinely assess PCIR.We aimed to gain a basic description of task-specific diagnostic fields, professional staff and their education, their clients, key diagnostic questions, observational settings, guidelines used in assessing PCIR and professionals' personal understanding of PCIR. To gain information on how professionals assess PCIR, we used an online survey containing multiple choice questions and rating scales.We describe differences between task-specific diagnostic fields of inpatient and outpatient settings, consulting and officially appointed surveyors for court decision. Only responses from professionals performing PCIR are analyzed (N = 166). PCIR is regularly used for more than a half of children between 0-12 years of age and for more than a third of adolescents for answering a broad spectrum of diagnostical questions. We describe differences for nearly all facets of PCIR except for the content related domain. Based on these differences between task-specific fields, we give suggestions for standardized documentation of PCIR and how findings from this study can be used for scientific development.