Impact of Parent Trauma on Parents' Beliefs Regarding the Benefit of Child Mental Health Care Services

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the interaction between parents’ own trauma and their assessment of their child’s functioning and its relationship to the parent’s belief that their child would benefit from mental health care services. The parents’ trauma experience was measured using the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) questionnaire and Trauma History Questionnaire (THQ), and the child’s functioning was measured using the Columbia Impairment Scale (CIS). It was hypothesized that the higher number of traumas a parent experienced was associated with a weaker relationship between a parent’s assessment of their child’s functional impairment and the likelihood a parent recognizes the benefit of mental health care services for their child. One hundred and eighty-four people participated in this study. Data were analyzed using multiple binary logistic regression, and no significant relationship was found between a parent’s assessment of their child’s functional impairment and that parent’s belief that their child would benefit from mental healthcare services. The parent’s childhood THQ score and age were found to have significant positive relationships with the parent’s belief that their child would benefit from mental healthcare services. The variable found to have the most significant positive relationship with the parent’s belief that their child would benefit from mental healthcare services was an educational or healthcare professional telling the parent that the child would benefit from mental health care services. Clinical implications, limitations, and future directions for research were addressed.