Physician-parent communication as predictor of parent satisfaction with child development services.
When doctors truly team up with parents—shared choices and responsibility—parents leave happier with every part of the service.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Aharon et al. (2006) asked parents how they felt about their child’s developmental services. They used a survey to measure two things: how much the doctor worked with them as a partner, and how satisfied they were with the service.
The parents had kids with different diagnoses. The team wanted to know if better teamwork predicted higher satisfaction.
What they found
Parents who said the doctor shared decisions and responsibility also reported much higher satisfaction. Kindness and interest helped, but the big driver was true collaboration.
How this fits with other research
Rattaz et al. (2014) asked the same question in autism services and got the same answer: when staff talk openly and invite parents into planning, satisfaction jumps.
Diemer et al. (2023) flipped the coin. They showed that poor service satisfaction predicts higher caregiver stress. Together these papers form a chain: better teamwork → higher satisfaction → lower stress.
Mandak et al. (2018) found a gap: speech therapists thought they were family-centered, but parents scored them lower. The lesson: don’t assume you’re collaborative—ask.
Why it matters
You can raise parent satisfaction today by sharing the driver’s seat. Start the session with one question: “What goal matters most to your family this month?” Write it down and build it into the plan. This tiny step gives parents real voice and lifts their view of your service.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The purpose of this study was to assess the level of parental satisfaction with services of a child development center and to evaluate the physician-parent dimensions of communication. A total of 90 parents to children with disability ranging in age from 6 months to 6 years participated in the study (84% response rate). Attitudes regarding parental communication with physicians were evaluated by 15 items clustered into three factors, which expressed different dimensions of communication: caring, collaboration and interest. Parents ranked their general satisfaction with the center's services relatively high as well as their evaluations of physician behavior of caring, collaboration and interest. Positive and statistically significant correlations were found between the studied communication dimensions and general satisfaction. However, collaboration was the only dimension that explained the variability on general satisfaction in a multivariate analysis. The collaboration of the physician with the parents was a key factor to explain parental general satisfaction with child rehabilitative services. Collaboration, which is associated with processes such as mutual decision making and sharing of responsibility, should be nurtured, in order to increase parents' general satisfaction with the services given.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2006 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2005.03.004