engleski

Mother-father differences in screening for developmental delay in infants and toddlers

In most cases, caregiver questionnaires are completed by mothers and seldom by fathers. Although parents tend to have moderate to high congruence, some studies suggested that differences between mothers and fathers can lead to diagnostic decision-making problems. The aim of this study is to determine differences between mothers` and fathers` results on internationally wide-used screening checklist, and to describe possible implications of observed differences in clinical settings. CSBS-DP Infant-Toddler Checklist is commonly used in many countries as useful screening and evaluation tool for identification of developmental delays in infants and toddlers. A Croatian version of the CSBS-DP checklist was completed by 422 parents (211 mothers and 211 fathers). Mean age of children was 15.4 months (6-24 months range). Inter-rater reliability and mother-fathers differences were calculated. Item-by-item analysis was made and the relationship between the parental concern and the score a child achieved was also examined. Mothers and fathers did not differ in Total scores (p=.165). Item-by-item analysis showed that the level of congruence between mothers` and fathers` scores was, on average, 78%. However, in 10-15% of cases, parents` scores placed child in different clinical categories (above vs. below the cut-off score). When discordance was present, fathers more often than mothers placed a child below criterion level, and that trend was more pronounced in girls than in boys. The level of parents` concern was found to be relatively low and not well balanced with the scores children achieved. Our findings suggest that the level of parents' concern is not very reliable indicator of child's delayed or deviant development. Furthermore, in 10-15% of cases parents differ to the extent that their results place child in different clinical groups.

screening ; congruence ; agreement ; parents ; communication

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