Measuring Parents' Perceptions of Mental Health Professionals

Abstract

Parent satisfaction with the behavior of persons providing mental health services to their children is an emerging area of interest. Parent satisfaction may provide clues to high attrition rates for mental health programs that serve children and families. The research reported here addresses some of the methodological difficulties in measuring parents'perceptions of mental health professionals. The development of a scale, the Helping Behavior Checklist, is described. The methodology included employment of a panel of expert judges to establish content validity and a field test in a sample of parents to examine reliability and discriminant validity. Pre liminary findings from a group of 202 parents contacted through parent support groups are presented.