Predicting family adjustment and parenting stress in childhood disability services using brief assessment tools

Abstract

Background The utility of two “psychosocial sensor measures” was explored for triage use in childhood disability services to detect households at longer‐term risk for parent and family distress.Method Approximately 6 months after entering childhood disability services, mothers and fathers in 111 Canadian families with a young child with a developmental or cognitive disability identified their family service needs and parenting morale. One year later parents completed standardised measures of parenting stress and family adjustment.Results Two brief measures assessing family counselling needs and parenting morale detected longer‐term family maladjustment from the independent perspectives of mothers and fathers. Although mothers' parenting stress in the longer‐term was detected by the set of measures, fathers' parenting stress was only detected by their parenting morale.Conclusions Brief empirical measures with high face validity may facilitate the process of assessment of service needs, and may help in the early identification of families with higher priority for psychosocial family support resources in childhood disability services.