Relationships among parental reports of child, parent, and family functioning

Most children with psychosocial problems do not present for treatment in me ntal health settings. They are managed by primary care physicians. Children with psychosocial problems often have parents and/or families with psychos ocial distress. The present study measured associations between parental re ports of child, parent, and family functioning in individuals in the genera l population. Participants were 226 parents of children, aged 2-16 years, w ho presented for routine primary care. Parents reported on the psychosocial functioning of themselves, their child, and their family. Ail correlations of measures were significant, ranging from .55 to .23. Similar to data fi om psychiatric samples, the psychological functioning of children, parents, and families were significantly correlated. Unlike in psychiatric settings , child mental health problems were not as closely related to parent or fam ily distress as parent and family distress were related to each other and t o child behavior problems.