Reasons Young Children are Referred for Psychological Services

In an effort to understand the reasons that young children might be referred for psychological services, ratings provided by mothers who had contacted a psychology clinic were compared to those provided by mothers who were college students. Results of this study suggested that children who were referred for psychological services were rated as having significantly higher levels of internalizing, externalizing, and total behavior problems as well as significantly lower levels of competence. Mothers of referred children rated themselves as having significantly lower levels of positive perceptions and higher levels of negative perceptions toward their children. These mothers also endorsed significantly lower levels of limit setting and higher levels of parenting stress. Mothers did not differ in their own characteristics. These findings suggested that interventions for young children and their families should be designed to address the emotional and behavioral functioning of the children as well as the parent-child relationship.