Parental Strategies of Normalization in Account Giving for Child Behavioral Issues.

摘要

In the US, many children do not receive the help they need for mental, emotional or behavioral problems. Fundamental to describing parents' help-seeking processes is an understanding of how parents talk about and account for their child's behavior, as children generally depend on their parents or guardians to seek help on their behalf. In this study, 51 interviews were conducted in a Midwest, urban, pediatric, emergency room with mothers whose children screened positive for a behavioral, emotional or mental disorder. The interviews were analyzed for mothers' accounts of their child's behavior. The accounts referenced parents' cultural understandings of child development; others' assessments (such as the child's teacher's) of the child's behavior; their own parenting as a contributing factor to the behavior; a distressing situation or event as potential cause of problematic behavior; and also used biographical narrative to provide context for an account. These account types suggest that parents view their child's behavior as reflective of the context or situation in which it occurs; as a natural, if sometimes distressing, consequence of normal development; or as reflective of their parenting methods. From the findings, it is suggested that further attention be given to parents' view of their child's behavior as reflective of their own parenting. A suggestion is also made for clinicians to approach behavioral evaluation as a collaborative characterization between themselves and the parent.