Behavioural and emotional concerns reported by parents of children attending a neurodevelopmental diagnostic centre

• Published in: Child : care, health & development health & development, 2018-09, Vol.44 (5), p.711-720
• Main Authors: Miller, Anton R., Gardiner, Emily, Harding, Louise
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Behavior; behaviour problems; Child; Child Behavior Disorders - diagnosis; Child Behavior Disorders - psychology; Child Behavior Disorders - rehabilitation; Child Health Services; Child, Preschool; Children; Clinics; Concerns; Developmental Disabilities - diagnosis; Developmental Disabilities - psychology; Developmental Disabilities - rehabilitation; Distraction; Emotional disturbances; Emotional Problems; Emotions; Female; Humans; Interdisciplinary aspects; Male; Medical diagnosis; neurodevelopmental disorders/disabilities; parent concerns; Parents; Parents & parenting; Parents - education; Parents - psychology; Pediatricians; Phenomenology; Professional-Family Relations; Qualitative Research; Rehabilitation; Retrospective Studies; Shyness; Social Behavior; Social isolation; Temper tantrums; Usefulness
• ISSN: 0305-1862; 1365-2214
• DOI: 10.1111/cch.12594

Background Behavioural and emotional problems are a salient concern for parents of children with neurodisability, but little is known about the nature of such concerns in this population, nor about the distribution of concern types across ostensibly different subpopulations. Methods Information about behavioural and emotional concerns was extracted from clinical reports of developmental paediatricians (N = 12) who had assessed children aged 3 to 8 years (N = 129) through three clinics at a major developmental and rehabilitation service centre. All concerns were captured at a granular level. A two‐stage, consensus‐based interdisciplinary concept‐sorting technique was used to identify and group thematically related behavioural and emotional concerns into First Stage Groupings, intended to preserve detail and specificity, and a reduced number of Second Stage Clusters. Results A total of 669 discrete concerns were encountered, aggregated to 58 First Stage Concern Groupings and 28 Second Stage Concern Clusters. Findings of the salience of Groupings related to Attention, Concentration and Distractibility, and Anxiousness, Shyness, and Emotional Sensitivity reflect existing literature for children with neurodevelopmental concerns. “Social Isolation/Peer Engagement,” “Tantrums/Outbursts/Meltdowns” and “Volatility/Self‐regulation Difficulties,” and “Sensory Issues” emerged as areas of significant concern and salience as well. Across clinics, three Clusters recurred among the top five observed for each clinic: “Tantrums/Outbursts/Meltdowns,” “Inflexibility/Gets Stuck or Fixated,” and “Social Behaviours.” Conclusions This rich descriptive dataset affords insight into the phenomenology of behaviour and emotional concerns in the daily lives of parents whose children have known or suspected neurodisability. Study findings can inform and sensitize clinicians working with this population. Usefulness is enhanced by inclusion of behavioural material that is subthreshold for a formal psychopathologic diagnosis. Certain concern types are encountered commonly across different clinical subpopulations, supporting a noncategorical view of behavioural and emotional problems as functional attributes that cross neurodisability diagnostic categories.