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Author's Comment
Beth G. Wildman, PhD
Arch Fam Med. 2000;9:616.
This research was stimulated by requests from family physicians for help with screening for psychosocial problems in their child patients. The physicians asked for a way to screen for these problems that would not add substantial time or expense to a routine office visit. In response, the first 2 investigators developed the Child Functioning Scale based on information that is routinely gathered during an office visit; namely, how the child is functioning in the major areas of his or her life. The unique aspect of the present research was the soliciting of information from the child as well as from the mother. Although physicians routinely talk with children, their conversations are often designed to calm the child and elicit cooperation. All too often, the feelings and perceptions of children are represented only by the reports of adults. However, previous research has clearly linked parental psychosocial distress and depression to reports of problematic child behavior. In addition, previous research has shown that parents often underestimate the frequency of affective distress (ie, anxiety and depression) in their children. We were interested in finding out if children could provide useful information about their daily functioning to their physicians.
As the findings indicate, even children as young as 5 years can be an excellent source of information about themselves. The results of the research emphasize the need to both systematically screen for behavioral and emotional problems in children and value the input of the child. They are the patients and they may have something important to say.
Kent, Ohio
RELATED ARTICLE
Use of Child Reports of Daily Functioning to Facilitate Identification of Psychosocial Problems in Children
Beth G. Wildman, Anne M. Kinsman, and William D. Smucker
Arch Fam Med. 2000;9(7):612-616.
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