Parents' perceptions of a child's need for treatment and where to access mental health services

While about 20% of children and adolescents suffer from some type of emotional, behavioral, or developmental problem, it is of significant concern that a majority of those children do not receive any type of services for their difficulties. There may be several reasons why this discrepancy between need for mental health care and service utilization exists, including difficulties associated with parents identifying that a problem exists as well as various barriers to treatment, such as access to providers, perceived stigma, income, and insurance status. The current study investigated parental perceptions about children's emotional and behavioral difficulties and whether or not parents would indicate help-seeking intentions for such difficulties. Parents were presented with vignettes depicting either boys or girls displaying externalizing and internalizing problems of different severities. Parents were found to perceive externalizing and internalizing vignettes differently. The study also assessed if, and from whom, parents would choose to access mental health services for their children regarding the depicted problems. Parents were most likely to seek help for externalizing severe vignettes and indicated that they would seek help from different providers depending on the type of problem described. Implications for helping parents seek appropriate referrals are discussed.