Factors Influencing Service Utilization and Mood Symptom Severity in Children With Mood Disorders: Effects of Multifamily Psychoeducation Groups (MFPGs)

• Published in: Journal of consulting and clinical psychology 2009-06, Vol.77 (3), p.463-473
• Main Authors: Mendenhall, Amy N, Fristad, Mary A, Early, Theresa J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Affective Disorders; Child; Children; Children & youth; Clinical psychology; Community Mental Health Services - utilization; Counseling Techniques; Culture; Effects; Emotional Disturbances; Family Income; Family Intervention; Family Therapy - methods; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Group Counseling; Health Care Utilization; Health Education - methods; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Health Service Needs; Health Services; Human; Humans; Intervention; Knowledge Level; Male; Mediation; Mental Health; Mood Disorders - diagnosis; Mood Disorders - epidemiology; Mood Disorders - psychology; Mood Disorders - therapy; Moods; Needs Assessment; Outcomes of Treatment; Parent-Child Relations; Parental Attitudes; Parents & parenting; Perceptions; Psychoeducation; Psychoeducational Methods; Psychoeducational treatment; Psychological Patterns; Psychotherapy, Group - methods; Quality of Services; Severity; Severity (of Disability); Studies; Symptoms; Treatment Outcome; Utilization Review - statistics & numerical data
• ISSN: 0022-006X; 1939-2117
• DOI: 10.1037/a0014527

This study investigated the impact of psychoeducation on service utilization and mood symptom severity in children with mood disorders. Parents' knowledge of mood disorders, beliefs about treatment, and perceptions of children's need for treatment were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between psychoeducation and service utilization and between psychoeducation and mood symptom severity. Linear mixed effects modeling and joint significance test for mediation were used in secondary data analyses of the multifamily psychoeducation group (MFPG) study, a randomized controlled trial of 165 children ages 8 to 12 years with mood disorders. A majority of those sampled were male (73%) and White, non-Hispanic (90%), and the median range of family income was $40,000-$59,000. Participation in MFPG significantly improved quality of services utilized, mediated by parents' beliefs about treatment. Participation in MFPG also significantly improved severity of child's mood symptoms, mediated by quality of services utilized. MFPG appears to be a psychoeducational intervention that helps parents to become better consumers of the mental health system who access higher quality services. Children's symptom severity decreases as a result.