Integrating a Parenting Assessment into Practice: Pediatric Providers' Time and Perspectives

Matern Child Health J. 2024 Oct;28(10):1663-1670. doi: 10.1007/s10995-024-03984-6. Epub 2024 Sep 16.

Abstract

Purpose: To integrate a parenting assessment into primary care and assess pediatric providers' time needed to review it and their perceptions of the process.

Description: The Quick Parenting Assessment (QPA) is a validated, 13 item parent support tool that assesses for healthy and unhealthy parenting practices. Higher QPAs indicate more unhealthy parenting being used. In a clinic serving low-income parents, the QPA was integrated into the 15 month, 30 month, 5 year, and 8 year well child visits. After each well child visit in which the QPA was administered, providers were invited to complete a one-page survey-315 surveys were included in the analysis.

Assessment: Most QPAs (78.7%) were low risk (QPA < = 2), 14.6% were medium risk (QPA = 3-4), and 6.7% were high risk (QPA > 4). The median time was 15-30 s to review low risk QPAs and 30 s to 1 min to review high risk QPAs. For most QPA reviews, health care providers reported that the QPA increased their objectivity in determining the level of support needed (68%), facilitated communication about parenting (77%), and increased the value of the visit (68%).

Conclusion: A validated parenting assessment tool, integrated into pediatric primary care, appears to work for pediatric health care providers. These findings have implications for supporting parents in pediatrics, value-based care, and disease prevention.

Keywords: Adverse childhood experiences; Child abuse prevention; Parenting; Pediatric primary care.

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Female
  • Health Personnel / psychology
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Male
  • Parenting* / psychology
  • Parents / psychology
  • Pediatrics / methods
  • Poverty
  • Primary Health Care*
  • Surveys and Questionnaires