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PARENT-YOUTH DISAGREEMENT AND THE OHIO SCALES ITEMS ON PROBLEM BEHAVIORS: A SEARCH FOR MEANING

Cox, Richard L
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1175993746

Abstract Details

2007, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, Counselor Education and Supervision.
Marriage and family therapists often have the opportunity of working with adolescents and their parent(s). Although the adolescent’s problem behaviors are often viewed as intrinsic to the adolescent, the marriage and family therapist works from a perspective of seeing the individual client as part of a family and views the parent-youth relationship as a critical and dynamic factor that affects the youth’s behaviors. Ohio Scales is a major child and adolescent assessment instrument that is employed by many service providers in the state of Ohio. Both youths and parents complete complementary forms. Twenty items comprise the Problem Behaviors section and function to assess the severity of the youth’s problem behaviors. Youths and parents often disagree in their responses to those items, and the clinician faces the question of whose responses give the more accurate description of the youth’s behaviors. The purpose of this study was to increase the profession’s understanding of why parents and youths disagree in their responses to problem behavior items in the Ohio Scales, and to clarify how the parent-youth disparities might benefit the clinician’s assessment and interventions. Previous researchers have determined that sometimes parents and youths agree and sometimes they disagree, without universal agreement among the researchers as to why. Variables are multiple and include such things as youth’s sex and age, the parents’ mental health, and the nature of the specific behaviors—often categorized as either internalizing or externalizing. This research utilized secondary data, which was made available by a non-profit agency that provides mental health services to children and adolescents. Participants included 452 parent-youth dyads. All youth were between the ages of 12 and 17. Parents identified themselves as biological mothers, biological fathers, step-parents, other, and unidentified—some caretakers did not identify their relationship with the youth. Levels of disagreement were examined by t-tests, correlations, and MANCOVAs. Behavioral constructs were determined with a confirmatory factor analysis. Results confirmed hypotheses that parent-youth differences were related to behavior constructs, principally internalizing problem behaviors and externalizing problem behaviors. Parent and youth variables were not supported as contributing factors. The quality of the parent-youth relationship, as perceived by the parent, was partially confirmed as a factor that affected parent-youth agreement.
Patricia Parr (Advisor)
135 p.
Education, Guidance and Counseling
Ohio Scales; youth; parent and youth disagreement; parent-youth relationship

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Cox, R. L. (2007). PARENT-YOUTH DISAGREEMENT AND THE OHIO SCALES ITEMS ON PROBLEM BEHAVIORS: A SEARCH FOR MEANING [Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1175993746

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Cox, Richard. PARENT-YOUTH DISAGREEMENT AND THE OHIO SCALES ITEMS ON PROBLEM BEHAVIORS: A SEARCH FOR MEANING. 2007. University of Akron, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1175993746.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Cox, Richard. "PARENT-YOUTH DISAGREEMENT AND THE OHIO SCALES ITEMS ON PROBLEM BEHAVIORS: A SEARCH FOR MEANING." Doctoral dissertation, University of Akron, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1175993746

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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This open access ETD is published by University of Akron and OhioLINK.